Hero Academy
by Jiece
Summary: Rinn Orunitia is the grandson of the legendary mage: Vivi. He wants to be a great hero just like his grandfather, and to do it he must first pass through four years at the prestigious Hero Academy.
1. The Trials

The trials.

Far beyond you and I… far beyond our respective countries… far beyond the boundaries of the realm we call "earth"… is a place called… Graphia. Graphia is a land to which the normal laws of our world do not apply. It is a place where great evils brew, and where great deeds are done. Graphia is a place… where heroes are born… Ah, but let us not get ahead of ourselves. Heroes, great and mighty, are of course a key element of our story. But remember, every hero starts somewhere. And in Graphia, every hero starts… at a school.

"Let the entrance exam… BEGIN!" shouted a burly man from the examiner's box. The rest of the stadium went wild with pent-up excitement. Old students, teachers, parents, and friends filled the stands of the Graphia hero academy stadium. The cheering filling the stadium was deafening as returning students wondered who would join the ranks this year. As mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters of the new recruits worried for their family member's health and future. As friends shouted and cheered for their friends, wishing them the best of luck in what they knew to be quite the rigorous test.

The burly man sat down in the examiner's box and folded his arms, ready to pry only the ripest from the bunch of them all. The shorter, scrawnier man beside him leaned over to his side.

"You seen the new recruits yet, Gana?"

The burly man turned to him. "Verikk, I don't need to see 'em. I already know how it's gonna be. 100 youngsters go into the stadium; 30 youngsters come out of stadium. It's the same routine every year."

The one called Verikk smiled and laughed a bit. "You're not the kind for wishing, eh Gana?"

Gana smiled back. "Well you know me Verikk. I'm old. I've been here for 53 years and it's a routine brawl session." He faced the stadium center again. "Once you've been here for 53 years, you expect nothing less. You'll understand in a couple decades."

Verikk stared at him for a moment, and then faced the stadium center, too. "I don't know, Gana… I really don't know."

Trumpets blared as the large, iron barred gates on either side of the sand-floored stadium slowly opened. The crowed unleashed a roar of immeasurable volume as a dark shape came out of both of them.

From Gana and Verikk's point of view, this was going to be a quick fight. To the right gate, a snarling niidhog sleekly walked out. Its body, like a lynx's, was smooth and perfectly proportioned for speed and agility. Its ivory horns protruding from its forehead gleamed in the sunlight from the roofless stadium, as did its fire red coat. Its eyes surveyed the area, it remembered this place. It had been brought here many times before. It extended its fangs and claws, as it showed off its twin tails, zipping back and forth, side to side, thin as piano wires and sharp as a skinner's knives. It knew what it was being used for… to harm creatures weaker than him for food and good care. Part of it liked its job. Most of it loved its job…

To the left gate, a short, confident young teenager slowly walked out onto the sand. He brushed off his tunic and slops, and looked admirably into the crowd. He raised his fist into the air and shouted confidently. Most of the crowd went wild, some of the crowd was laughing at his antics. They knew the cocky ones were always the failures.

The young man walked further out onto the sand, milking the crowd for all they had. Absent mindedly, he walked right in front of the niidhog. He instantly forgot everything he was doing and gazed in absolute terror at the niidhog. His knees started shaking and the crowd grew much quieter than it had been. The niidhog took one step towards the boy and he fainted.

The niidhog crouched down, ready to pounce in a matter of seconds to feast on his prey, as was instinct, when Gana stood up again and took a black ring from his blue uniform pocket. He placed it on his hand quickly and shouted "Bind!"

For a brief moment, the crowd fell completely silent, as the niidhog was an inch away from the boy, completely frozen in mid-air. The crowd immediately broke into a thunderous roar as two uniformed men came onto the field and took the limp boy to the medical tent outside the stadium. The niidhog unfroze and struck the ground hard, hitting nothing. It snarled and went back to its gate.

Gana sat down and removed the ring, placing it back in his pocket. He sighed and said "Well, one down."

Verikk eyed the old yet spry man. "Don't think they'll all be like this. They only have to avoid it for three minutes and they pass."

"What, you don't think I know that? I came up with the idea for this trial!"

"I know, I know. But I saw some pretty keen kids in the briefing room. We might have to dock it up to four minutes."

Gana brushed back his graying hair with his hand and turned to see a new challenger walking in from the left gate. "That's the problem with you new teachers… you have too much confidence in these kids."

Verikk couldn't help but laugh at the cynical old man. Gana went on: "Who's coming out to fight now?" He took a sip from the crystal glass of red wine he was drinking.

Verikk look closely at the clipboard he was holding. "A black mage… Rinn Orunitia."

Gana immediately choked on the wine and began to cough hysterically.

"Uh… Gana? Are you okay?" Verikk inquired, patting his colleague on the back. "What's wrong? Bad wine?"

Steadying himself, Gana turned rapidly to Verikk with a look of exhaustion, shock, and joy. "Orunitia! Verikk, did you really say Orunitia!" Do you know who this boy is, Verikk!

Verikk, now slightly afraid of the ecstatic man, backed into his seat a bit. "Well, er… to be honest sir, no. Do you um… know him?"

Gana ran his hand down his face; he couldn't believe his good friend Verikk didn't realize the gravity of the situation. "You are of course familiar with the 'Great Heroes', I assume…"

Verikk looked at Gana in puzzlement. He was offended; of course he knew! The legends of the Great Heroes were taught at a kindergarten level. "Why yes, Gana. The hero Cecil… the hero Titus… The hero Squall, Zidane, Cloud… the list goes on. Why do you ask?"

"Yes, those are the primary heroes, but what do you know of the mages by their sides?"

Again, it was obvious. "Let's see… Lulu, Rosa, Rinoa, Yuna…"

"Besides the women, man!"

"Oh, um… Tellah, Palom, Vivi…"

"Stop right there, my good man. Do you happen to know any more than just their first names?"

Verikk was wondering what Gana was getting at. He smiled and replied: "What, you want the last names?" He laughed, and then saw the serious expression on Gana's face. "Oh, um… er… well most Tellah and Palom's personal information was lost… the manuscripts were too old… But I believe Vivi's last name…" Then it struck him. "Was…" It struck him like a train crashing into a wall of steel. "**Ornitier!**"

Verikk and Gana stood up and clapped their hands on each other's shoulders in unison. "We have a descendant of one of the Great Heroes at our school!" And they immediately started shouting and cheering at the top of their lungs with the rest of the crowd, rooting for Rinn.

The young mage walked further out onto the stadium ring, countless butterflies in his stomach. His navy blue robes brushed the ground behind him; its silk sheen gleaming in the sunlight. He clutched his redwood staff tighter as the assorted charms hanging from the end jangled with each step.

_What if I forget my spells?_ He nervously thought to himself. _What if I wore the wrong armor? They **are** all purpose robes, but still… what if my opponent is fire-based or water-based? I'm not prepared for that!_

He arrived at the center of the ring and began to feel faint. A second, icy blue niidhog began to stalk its way out of the gate, slightly larger than the last one. Rinn tried to reassure himself.

_You're okay… you're okay… you're not going to forget my spells and you know you can pass this test. Your grandfather **was** a great hero, anyway. You got this, Rinn. It's all you, it's all you…_

And then he saw the niidhog about a dozen meters away, approaching steadily. _It's not all you, it's not all you!_

Gana stood up again and shouted: "Let the entrance exam… BEGIN!" as the crowd went wild again.

The niidhog began to slowly, yet surely, circle Rinn, drawing his sharp black claws. Rinn turned at the same pace so to stay facing it, while nervously adjusting his pointy straw hat, strewn with patched of all sorts, to get it just the way he liked it: hiding most all of his face in shadow and revealing nothing of it but two circular glowing yellow eyes.

The niidhog continued to circle Rinn until Rinn fell into its plan. Rinn attacked first, charging at the niidhog with his redwood staff above his shoulder, prepared for a diagonal blow. But just before Rinn could reach it, the niidhog turned to a sandy brown color, very close to the color of the sand in the stadium.

But Rinn was too close to stop now; he swung the staff right **through** the niidhog, which exploded into a cloud of dust, as though it was only a sand sculpture. Rinn, confused and embarrassed to fall for such an obvious trick, spun around in just enough time to catch the niidhog charging at him, almost in pouncing range. It lunged at Rinn, claws outstretched, ready to dig into the soft flesh of the human before it.

But Rinn quickly raised his staff to block its two front claws. He succeeded in throwing it off balance, but the momentum knocked him over in the process.

The niidhog landed gracefully and skidded to a halt, immediately turning to lash out at Rinn once more. Unfortunately for Rinn, the niidhog was much faster at recovering than he was. Rinn could barely get up on his knees before he had to raise his staff to block its fore claws once more. The recoil from the block was worse this time, and Rinn's skull collided with the hard earth.

Again the niidhog turned around and charged once more, the killing strike at the ready now. Rinn barely lifted his head to see the icy blue figure charging at him… slowly getting blurrier and blurrier until it went black.

Gana was heartbroken… the Orunitia child had failed the exam… he stood up and reached for the black ring the old red mage used for black magic. But suddenly he saw something. Rinn, with his eyes closed, got up almost effortlessly and placed his staff firmly in the earth, facing the charging niidhog.

"Verikk… I never thought I'd be able to see this is a thousand lifetimes… and here it is, happening right before our eyes."

Verikk, mouth wide open, was staring at the small cloaked figure in disbelief. How could he still be standing? "What, er… exactly **is** it, Gana?"

Before Gana answered, Rinn's eyes burst wide open, now a piercing white light in the stead of yellow. With the niidhog only a foot away, Rinn raised his staff and in one lightning-fast motion, smacked it harshly across the face. Then, in a fraction of a second, moved around to its side the bluntly smashed it in the ribs, the back of its skull, kneecaps, spine, and jaw.

The crowd blinked, just barely realizing what had just happened, when finally he ducked and delivered a fierce uppercut and automatically began target the now airborne beast with magic. Rinn dropped his hand to his side and the searing energy of a fireball began to condense in his palm. In seconds, he hurled it up at the niidhog and it exploded, showering the ground in sparks and fur.

Rinn's eyes returned to their former color and he collapsed on the ground. Gana was already almost down to the stadium floor, running as fast as he could from the examiner's box. The crowd was completely silent as he ran out into the ring towards the near-unconscious mage. He helped Rinn up and grabbed his wrist, holding it high in the air.

"Examinee number two: Rinn Orunitia… PASSED! With the astounding use of the rare "trance" ability!"

Immediately a roar of thunderous applause never before heard of rang out across the stands. While Gana helped Rinn across the ring to the resting area, Rinn looked up tiredly at Gana. "Did I make it?" And he finally passed out. Gana couldn't help but smile.

"Yes Rinn, you made it. I have a feeling you will be _quite_ successful at our school."


	2. Meet the Family

Meet the "Family"

"Gah!" a shout rang out and echoed into the enormous, marble-walled room. Rinn bolted upright from a dull, white bed in what seemed to be a large, empty infirmary. He looked about wildly, unable to tell where he was. "What the- where'd the- and the niidhog with the- what the heck is going on here?"

"Settle down, settle down, young one. All will be explained, do not rush the inevitable."

Rinn, still in near-panic, turned to face where the voice was coming from, and found it! A very tall, elegant looking man slowly approached him from a chair a few feet away from Rinn's bed. After stepping out of the shadows, Rinn could see that the man hat furry, triangular ears on the top of his head, like a cat. He also had three whiskers on either side of his of his face, and distinct black slits for pupils in his eyes. This was no human male, he was mithran!

Rinn, realizing he was gaping like a moron, settled himself. Noticing he was now hatless, he looked over on either bedside table for it, but finding nothing.

The Mithra extended his hand, in which Rinn's large, straw magi hat was firmly grasped. "Looking for this?" He inquired.

"Thanks!" Feeling incomplete without it, he grabbed it hastily and threw it on, his eyes lighting up a bright yellow in reaction to the sudden veil of darkness. After a short silence, Rinn asked: "So… where exactly am I?"

"Why m'boy, you're in the infirmary. You blacked out after the little number you did on the niidhog, but you had no serious damage. We brought you here to rest." Rinn pondered this for a moment. The mithra reached out and adjusted Rinn's hat for him. "I'm Doctor Verikk Furston, by the way. I'll be teaching biology and "introduction to history" for you and your class this year.

Shattered of his train of thought, Rinn hastily shook his hand. "It's good to meet you, sir. My name is Rinn Orunitia and I hope to learn much from you and this school."

The kind doctor chuckled. "No need to be so formal, Rinn. You can just call me Verikk."

Rinn shook his head in understanding and smiled. "Right, Verikk."

Verikk held up his index finger. "One second, forgot to give you something." He walked back to his chair and picked up a rather large pouch leaning beside it and began rummaging through it. Rinn took the time given to observe his surroundings. All up and down the infirmary there were very generic looking hospital beds, all empty. A few torches here and there lit the whole of the area very dimly and didn't do much for the temperature. Water was dripping down the cracks of the bland stone walls, forming small, cold puddles here and there.

But the thing that caught Rinn's attention most was the cold. For an infirmary, it was very uncomfortable. His heavier outer robes lying on the end of the bed, Rinn could feel the icy whisper of the temperature seep through his lighter under robes. He could almost feel it start to brittle his hair and skin, a distinct freezing feeling coming from what seemed to be a light fog on either side of the room. The more he though about this, the more it affected him.

"Got it!" exclaimed Verikk, holding up what seemed to be a circular piece of tanned leather, along with a needle and some thread. He put it all down on the end of Rinn's bed and sat down, noticing Rinn was shivering. "Cold?" he asked as he began to sow the leather onto the shoulder of Rinn's outer robes.

"A little" replied Rinn, running his hands up and down the length of his arms for warmth of friction.

Verikk chuckled softly. "I can fix that." He put down his sowing project and stood up. As he rolled up his sleeves, Rinn noticed that his arms were completely covered by fur, an unusual characteristic for a mithra. Verikk made a few circular motions with his arms, breathing in heavily as he did so. When his arms were at maximum length, he slapped his hands together, creating a silent, yet slightly visible, shockwave of a sorcery Rinn had never seen.

As the shockwave slowly spread out from Verikk's person, it transformed everything it passed over. The bleak, wet stone floor dried immediately and showed a rich tan color and smooth texture. All the beds immediately grew twice their height via mattress size increase, and were covered with richly decorated blankets, sheets and pillows all of a stunning deep garnet color. The walls became dry and adopted the same comforting tan the floor had taken while the windows lost their depressing frost and the fog vanished immediately.

A second shockwave, much speedier than the first, burst from Verikk's clasped palms. In moments it had brushed over the entire floor, which now was covered mostly by exotic garnet rugs with golden tassels. Long, lavish drapes appeared over the windows, matching the color scheme of deep garnet and gold.

Finally a third, lightning fast wave spread from Verikk, which almost immediately hit the ceiling and vanished, leaving behind a gorgeous diamond chandelier bigger than any Rinn had ever seen, an enormous fireplace at the end of the room, and large tapestries that fell from the ceiling to the floor, depicting the epic journey's of the Great Heroes.

Verikk brushed his hands off on his slacks and sat back down to his sowing. After a moment of silence, Verikk brought his head up from his work. He raised a hand high in the air and snapped twice. Immediately the dim torches burst into bright orange flame, bringing out the fullness of color and texture to the now luxurious room.

Rinn, once again caught silently gaping in awe, had nearly fainted in shock when finally came: "There, finished!" from Verikk. Rinn turned to face Verikk, whom was offering Rinn's over robes back to him, grinning.

Rinn slipped off the bed and took the robe, throwing it on almost immediately. The heavy, deep blue robes were about five feet long; just barely longer than Rinn's total height from his neck to his feet. Rinn walked around a little, getting use to the thick, heavy article of clothing once more, with it just barely brushing the ground behind him.

He turned back around from staring at the fire on the other side of the room. "Thank you very much, Verikk. I didn't realize my robe had been damaged in the fight."

Verikk smiled and ran his hand through his shoulder length dark brown hair. "No problem, but it wasn't damaged at all. I just sowed a leather patch onto the shoulder." After a small moment of silence, he continued. "You'll see what it's for later." Rinn nodded as Verikk stood up from the bed and walked over to Rinn. "It's six-thirty, you know. The opening ceremony starts at seven o'clock. You'd better go."

Rinn beamed with joy. _I still can't believe I got accepted into the hero academy! _"Yes sir!" He near shouted as he ran off towards the door, brought it open and rammed it shut as he ran through.

Verikk laughed and waved his hand in a careless zigzagged motion. The needle and spool of thread hopped into the pouch and the whole package floated up to Verikk. He stood in place for a moment, counting out loud. "Three… two… one."

The door burst back open with Rinn standing in the doorway, a slightly embarrassed and agitated look on his face. "I have no idea where I am going."

Verikk chuckled and pointed at Rinn, immediately a map appeared in his hands. Rinn opened it with curiosity, stared at it, then looked back up at Verikk. "You're gonna want to go to the Serene Hall… just go down the hallway from here, take the second left you see, down one flight of stairs, and you should see a large number of students such as yourself." He traced the line of passage on the map with his finger. "You're gonna want to look for a tall, scrawny guy with dark sand colored hair. He'll be carrying a whip with him."

Rinn gave Verikk a shocked and confused expression. "He'll be carrying a **what!"**

Verikk laughed. "Don't worry! He's a high ranking beast master. He'll be teaching an elective class for first through third year students. He's also your advisor for this year… well, you and a few other kids."

"Right." said Rinn. "So I just go here, then here, and down here?" He retraced the line on the map. Verikk nodded. "Cool, then. Thanks Verikk! I'll be off now!" he semi-shouted back as he ran back out the heavy wooden door.

"Good luck, Rinn! I'll see you bright and early on Tuesday!" Verikk shouted back.

Rinn, now at the second left he needed to take, skidded to a turn and briefly had time to shout back: "See ya!"

Rinn could barely contain his excitement. _This is gonna be so cool! I'm gonna become a hero, gonna fight bad guys, make new friends, learn cool spells…_ But he was cut off as he was half down the stairs. To his immediate surprise, one stair had lifted right before he stepped on it **just** enough to trip him. "Gawk!" Tumbling down the stairs much faster than he could have ran them; he had brief moments of time to think. _Well…_ "Ow!" _this… _"Ow!" _sucks…_ "OWCH!" He yelled as he smashed his head onto the sandstone flooring of the first floor.

Immediately after getting up, Rinn could hear something besides the ringing in his ears: voices. Very, very many voices. Despite the throbbing forehead, Rinn dashed down the hall, the voices getting louder with each step, until finally he came to a huge, oak double-door. Before he could reach the handle, they opened just enough for Rinn to get through comfortably into the massive crystal and stone hallway.

As he stepped through, the doors closed behind him suddenly and he jumped and turned to see the tall young man Verikk had described. "Right then, you must be Rinn."

Rinn nodded, staring up at the man. _Scrawny indeed!_ He thought as the man loomed over him, nearly thin enough to hide behind a sapling ash tree and at least a head taller than Rinn. The man extended a hand.

"I understand I'm going to be your advisor this year" he said, half-yelling to be heard over the roar of the sea of students. "I'm Astos. It's nice to meet you."

Rinn shook Astos' hand with gusto. "Likewise."

After the shake, Astos led Rinn over to the right corner closest to the door in the broad, square room. "Sit tight here for a moment. I need to go round up some of your roommates."

Rinn, realizing he would throw out his voice if he tried to yell over the crowd again, simply gave him a "thumbs up" as Astos disappeared into the sea. Rinn took in the scenery, though most of it was covered in assorted first year students. He gazed through the large crystal windows that covered about seventy percent of the walls. The late sunset was about to die down, giving off a beautiful orange glaze that covered the horizon. A feeling of content settled itself inside Rinn. _This is gonna friggin' rock._

Turning attention to the students, he became overwhelmed. White mages were speaking with white mages, black mages were showing off small displays of elemental magic to others… and he could have sword he saw a thief pick pocketing another thief who was pick pocketing a **third** thief, pick pocketing a warrior.

"Rinn!" a hoarse voice shouted from a few feet away. Astos had returned, about eight others following close behind him. Unfortunately the roar of the crowd grew louder as Astos tried to speak. He then yelled "screw this!" at the top of his lungs. "Let's go outside, for god's sake!" He opened the door Rinn had entered from and beckoned them all through it. Gladly, the nine of them obliged.

Shutting the door tightly, all of the sound died instantly. "Now then, guys." Astos began, "How about an easy introduction…" seeing everyone was lined up in a slightly circular fashion, he decided. "We'll go around the circle, one at a time. Give your name, class, and anything you wanna say about yourself."

Astos pointed to a short, grey haired boy in a hooded white and black tunic. He stepped forward a bit before declaring: "Hey! Uh… my name is Dieh Bengal, and I'm thirteen years old. I've chosen to become a summoner and I'm quite handy with a staff!" He stepped back, followed by some weak applause here and there.

The boy to the left of him stepped out. He had flat, off-white hair that barely reached down to his ears, except for two long sections that started of either side of his forehead, hanging down passed his shoulders. He was wearing a heavy white robe with two red stripes going from both shoulders down to both feet and a large, white beret with a red cross located in the middle. "Hello everyone, my name is Aran Constanople. I'm fourteen years old and I've chosen to become a white mage."

It went on like this for about six minutes until everyone had been introduced, Rinn, Dieh, Aran, Trent, Jiece, Jackson, Naru, Paris, and Mina. Astos came back up to them and spoke to them about being in a co-ed dorm at the age of thirteen or fourteen. "Remember that it's not a chance to 'make it big' with the opposite sex. **Hell** no. In fact, that room has been sealed with enchantments to prevent that for decades. Try something, and you **will** cease to move any part of your body for six hours."

He went on to inform them they would be living in the first year's room in the Leonhart house dormitory, a house dedicated to the Great Hero Squall Leonhart. He personally updated their maps (which were apparently a mandatory need for the first few weeks.) on the location of their room.

"Now then…" he continued, "you're going to be separated into squads of three in about…" he looked at the time glyph on the wall, which read six fifty-seven. "Three or four minutes. Most tests, classes, jobs, chores, and activities will be attended in these groups of three, though some classes and test will require just you and not your two partners."

"And I don't want any 'leader' crap, guys." He cleared his throat briefly. "You are to share the power of the group evenly." He clasped his hands together conclusively, "and with that said, welcome aboard! I look forward to teaching and advising you all. At seven o'clock you're gonna go back in there and follow the rest of the crowd into Celestial Hall, where you'll be placed into your squads and gain the seal of Leonhart."

A strange bell tone rang out through the air and hung for a few seconds. All sound seemed to have died. Astos made a hasty directing motion towards the door for them to hurry through. They hurriedly ran through while Astos stayed behind. After the door slammed behind them, Astos smirked and began to slowly walk down the empty, silent hallway.

After being positive that no one could see or hear him, Astos pulled a square piece of paper from his pocket, and began to write. _Astos reporting, sir. I've been assigned to those three you told me to look for. I'll initiate phase alpha on schedule. _He folded the paper elegantly to make the shape of a small bird. Snapping his fingers, it came to life and flew down the hall speedily, making a sharp, quick turn at the corner.

After a few minutes, another paper bird came down from where he had sent his. It landed in his open palm and unfolded, revealing a single, elegantly written word:

Excellent…


	3. Rivals, friends, and beer!

Woo! Third chapter! To all my loyal readers (total count: 1), I thank you for putting up with the opening chapters. All epic stories start with semi-boring opening chapters… I assure you Hero Academy will **rock your world!** (Assuming your "world" is very small… and easily rockable… and veeeerrry small.)

--

Friends, rivals, and beer!

As the first year students entered Celestial Hall, cheers were ignited from the several large, circular tables placed around it. Yells, stomps, claps, and whistles were heard from all around, welcoming the fresh batch of students.

All the way at the back of the hall, the newcomers were taken aback by the intense brightness of the hall. _No wonder they call it "Celestial Hall." _Thought Rinn, covering his eyes. He had a feeling that the others were thinking this same thought.

All sight had been blocked out by intense white light, save for a blackened figure that seemed to be floating high above the ground. A loud pounding sound was heard, like that of wood on stone, and all cheering stopped immediately. A voice rang out from the front of the hall. "Diaga III!" It shouted.

The great light vanished and sight was restored to the gaping new students. The hall was incredible! The walls were made of pure silver and crystal, sculpted into diamond shapes and tiled along the wall, giving a breath-taking feel of awe to the place. Great shimmering chandeliers were hung from the top of what seemed to be a ceilingless hall, gleaming in indescribable beauty. The large, endless wall behind what seemed to be a teacher's platform at the front of the room was a giant window, showing off the countless stars and bright full moon behind it.

The man who had cast Diaga was standing at the front of the platform. The man had pearly white hair that reached down nearly to his waist, and he looked not a day older than thirty! He cleared his throat and began to speak.

"Welcome, one and all, to another proud year at the academy!" He boomed out in a firm, smooth voice. Assorted cheers were heard from several students. "As you know me, I am a man of few words, so I'll make this brief. As you all know, this academy was built on the foundation of epic heroes and heroines. I expect you all to become only the bigger and brighter heroes as the years go on, don't let me down.

"As time passes, only a select few of you will continue on to the higher levels… it is a terrible, terrible thing to see the students leave the academy. So I implore you, assert yourselves! Do not give up the good fight! The worlds around us grow direr with each passing day, never have we needed heroes more than now. I know you can all make it through and save the lives of countless innocents, so do not give up the dream to be… a hero."

Students from every table clapped and cheered joyously, while the man picked up an old, leather book from the teachers' table. Opening it up, he began to call out names. "Bengal, Dieh. Crumbley, Jackson. Norse, Mina. The three of you, please step up."

Obediently, if not automatically, Dieh, Jackson, and Mina slowly walked up to the front of the hall, which was now nearly silent. Now a yard away from the headmaster, he began to speak.

"You three shall join forces to banish darkness, in the honor of Squall Leonhart." The made several fleeting motions with his hand and the leather patches the three wore on their shoulders were briefly set aflame. Extinguishing themselves almost faster than the three realized they were on fire, the patches were now marked with an insignia burned into them: two vertical lines going through one triangle.

"The mark of the pure shall be set upon you. Do not let us down." He nodded and the three bowed, then turned and walked over to a table with nine seats marked: "Leonhart: First years."

"Cedric, Trent. Constanople, Aran. Orunitia, Rinn. The three of you, please step up." The headmaster commanded.

Half of the students cheered for the newcomers; the other half fell completely silent at the mention of Rinn's last name, though soon enough joining in the cheering, louder than before. Chanting the same that was said for Dieh, Jackson, and Mina, the headmaster set fire to their patches, marking them with the mark of the pure.

Headed towards the Leonhart's first year table, Jackson beckoned. "Over here!"

The three sat down with the others as squads continued to be assigned throughout the 45 new students. Immediately conversation broke out.

"Forty-five students, eh? I heard that the normal quotient is only thirty!" started Dieh.

"For real?" inquired Trent. "So what, we're overbooked or something?"

"The hell if I know!" Dieh replied, smiling. "There **are** supposedly a rather large number of warriors this year… you better watch out, eh Trent? You might get set packin'!"

"Naw man, if anyone is getting sent packin', it'll be you or Jackson. Who ever heard of two summoners in **one** group?"

"Wait, wait, wait…" Mina broke in. "You're both summoners? How the heck am I supposed to work with that? I'm a defender!"

Trent winked and beckoned. "You could always come over here and me an' you could make our own little squad. That is until I'm done taking advantage of your slightly higher experience in battle for my own leveling benefit, after which leaving you back where you started… where I shall then become king of the first years due to high experience and you shall be my queen!"

There was a disturbingly long silence at the table, in the middle of which Rinn could hear the last few names being called out.

"Argus, Quayd. Veniid, Sara. Rome, Eriq. The three of you, please step up."

This was followed immediately by: "Wait, did I say that last part of my thought out loud?" Trent smiled, inferring that it was a joke. Everyone laughed heartily.

Paris, Jiece, and Naru joined the table.

"Hey guys" Jiece started. "What's up?"

Jackson casually waved his hand dismissingly "Eh, nothing much; random conversation and junk."

"I see…" There was a short silence.

Rinn finally spoke. "So… we're all gonna be living together, huh?"

Mina cut back in. "Looks like it… one big, happy family, right?" she chuckled with a smile.

"Exactly" Dieh interrupted. "And I don't know about the rest of ya'll, but I think we should get to know each other better than solely from a short introduction, right?"

There were assorted murmurs of agreement. "Great then. I'll start off! Uh… I like puppies. Anyone else?"

"I dunno, I was always more of a cat person, myself" said Jiece.

"Yeah, same here" Naru added.

"I never had a dog or a cat when I was younger, I wouldn't know!" said Mina.

"Wait" continued Dieh, "for real? Did you not have a pet at all?"

"My family owned a sahagin for a few days. But it tore up the furniture too often and the acid breath resulted in too many casualties, so we let it go."

Trent raised a finger. "Uh, question. Why the hell did you own a sahagin in the first place? They're scary fish-thingies."

"Eh, it kept out the mice."

"Good point."

Paris spoke for the first time. "If it adds a variety to the conversation… I, uh, have a pet wyvern." It was duly noted by the table that there was nervousness in her voice.

Rinn noticed though, something about her was different to him than the others. She seemed… intoxicating. Time seemed to be slowed for a few moments as she spoke, he hung onto every word, briefly love-struck, though he was quickly thrown out of it with the sound of Trent's voice from the seat next to him.

"Holy freakin' heck! That's awesome!"

Rinn snapped out of his temporary euphoria to notice there was now a small, light blue dragon on Paris' shoulder. Though it was only a few inches long, the site was amazing. Its piercing yellow eyes complimented its shimmering blue scales nicely.

"Thanks." Said Paris shyly, blushing slightly. "Her name is Gale, she's double crossed."

Rinn, Jackson, and Jiece all spoke at once. "Double crossed? What does that mean?"

Paris extended her arm towards the center of the table and Gale walked down the length of it, stopping in her palm. She stretched and yawned, revealing not only the normal set of wings you'd find on a dragon, located just above the shoulders… but a second, smaller pair of wings as well, just above the hips.

Accompanied by many "ooohs" and "aaahs", Gale curled up and closed her eyes for a nap in Paris' outstretched palm.

Before the conversation could continue further, the headmaster spoke again.

"At this time, I would like to announce that the first term of the year shall officially begin at twelve o'clock tonight. After dinner, you shall all stay put and wait for your advisors to find you, at which time you will be led to your respective dorm rooms. Class introductions start at ten A.M. sharp and announcements will be read off in Celestial Hall an hour prior to said class time."

He cleared his throat for the final words of the speech. "And with this said, I welcome you, once again, one and all, to the prestigious Graphian Hero Academy! Let the feast, BEGIN!"

At this last word he raise his arms high into the air, great streams of sparks flew from his hands to the tables, instantly creating a feast fit for a king to each of the twenty tables.

_Wow… I'm in… I'm totally IN! _Thought Rinn. _This is going to be the best four years of my-_

The thought was cut short by none other than Jiece and Trent shouting in unison.

"Dude! They've got beer here!"

--

Phew… sorry that took so long, folks… I got sidetracked with Final Fantasy Tactics advanced. I promise I'll churn out a few more quickly, as compensation. Any-dang-way, someone review the thing if you want more, any old criticism will do. I need something to perfect on people… Oh, and something bothering me…

Are these chapters too long? –please include in review-

Too much description? –please include in review-

Well, see you guys, lookin' forward to chapter four, I hope!

(p.s.) no, I didn't copy "FF Gaiden Academy", by "archmage lord." My idea has been months in the making, I found out a similar story was put out RIGHT before mine was. But it's cool, I enjoy competition.


	4. Getting Adjusted

Thanks for reviewing, guys. Hero academy shall continue as originally planned! Due to a request, I'll see if I can't short these chapters from 36KB to 30KB, but I might not be able to, so don't kill me if I can't! Now sit back and enjoy the continuing adventures of Rinn and the gang in chapter 4!

--

Getting Adjusted

Back in the dorm, an exhausting distance from Celestial Hall, none could sleep. Dieh and Jackson had their two canopy beds next to one another, which they were sitting on while exchange theories on original summoning.

Trent, Jiece, Naru, and Mina were deep in a rousing game of "Texas Hold 'Em", in which Trent had already lost 500 Gil, his shoes, sword, and a strand of hair.

"Damn it!" he said. "Are you that the lower numbered cards are better than the high ones?"

The rest muffled laughter at their mock deception. "Of course!"

Rinn was reading a copy of "The Legend of Zelda: the Novel", a book that he had enjoyed for many, many weeks. But this night, he was distracted. He continued to read, furiously trying to block out the continuous thought of that moment at the hall table. _Why did I feel like that? I don't even know her, but…_ He tried focusing on the book again.

_Screw this! _He thought. Rinn lowered the book slightly, just enough to peer over the top, towards the large garnet bed in the corner of the room.

Paris was sitting on the edge of her bed, a sketchbook in hand. She was scribbling away quickly, slowly obtaining a rough portrait of Gale, sleeping on the window sill. The half moon outside gave just enough light to brighten Gale's scales, which now seemed to be glowing in the slightly darkened corner.

Rinn switched his focus from Gale to Paris. After a few moments, he looked around the room stealthily. _Okay… no one is looking in this direction, the coast is clear. _He decided. He looked back over his novel to Paris, still sketching furiously.

"Wow…" he muttered under his breath. Paris was about five and a half feet tall; just about up to Rinn's size. She had her light brown hair twisted and tied into one long, elegant braid, ending about six inches above her waist. _Her perfectly curved waist…_ Rinn thought, immediately giving himself a mental slap for thinking that.

"Why don't you stop gawking from behind a book and say something?"

Startled, Rinn bolted upright and turned to his left, where Aran had been sitting the **whole** time, flipping and turning tarot cards in the curious ways of a white mage. Rinn regained his composure and snapped back "And who are you to say that?"

Not looking away from his tarot board, Aran replied: "In a literal sense, Aran Constanople… white caster, fourth class; in a sense fitting to our argument, a spectator providing some friendly advice." As if to make a point, he turned a final card forcefully. "That you may or may not take… your choice."

Knowing to avoid confrontation with Aran or Paris, Rinn immediately shunned the idea with a faulty excuse. "Maybe uh, tomorrow… I have a cold right now; I don't wanna sound like a moron."

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind, go say something."

"No, really, it's fine… tomorrow is better, really."

"Nonsense, you go right on ahead and talk to her."

Running out of options, Rinn focused his thoughts immediately on water. "Yeah, well… water!"

A short jet of water burst from Rinn's now outstretched hand and extinguished the torch he had aimed for. Giving a quick salute to Aran, he hastily threw off his hat and hurriedly covered himself with the sheets of his bed, "Sleeping time now, g'night Aran."

During this conversation, Dieh and Jackson had already turned down their beds. Dieh was fast asleep and Jackson was sketching out new summoning circles by candle-light.

Naru stood up from the card game and stretched. "Yeah, I suppose sleep is a good idea." She casually swept back her straight, golden blonde hair and walked away from the game. The rest agreed and went to their respective sides of the room, leaving Jiece to clean up the cards by himself.

"Yeah guys," he joked, "real smooth."

Trent walked up to the bed to the right of Rinn and fell on it, face down, and fell asleep instantly. "Lucky," commented Aran.

"So Rinn," he went on. "It seems black mages** do** have faces, huh?"

Still in very dim light, Rinn's eyes were glowing a faint yellow. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, y'know, most of the times I see black mages, they have their hats down, covering most of their faces. I was starting to think they didn't have them, but you proved me wrong."

"Not have a face, that's ridiculous!"

"It is, but after years of seeing mages like that, it was starting to seem true."

Rinn created a bright flame in his hand and held it up near his face. "See? A face on a mage. I have yellow eyes, a nose, two ears, and brown hair. I'm exactly like the rest of you."

Aran laughed heartily. "Alright, alright, I get it, it's ridiculous, I know." He looked Rinn's features over quickly. "Why do you have bleached streaks of hair in the front and side?"

"You know, I've always wondered that… birth defect, maybe."

"Maybe."

"Hey, guys!" shouted Jiece, "Let's play the shut up game! Jeez…"

The lights were all extinguished and goodnights exchanged. One by one, the team fell asleep, eagerly waiting for the day ahead.

Gale stretched her four wings by the windowsill and, drowsy eyed and weary, glided a few feet over to Paris' bed. She walked over a ways and curled up next to Paris' chest, let out a short yawn, and drifted to sleep.

--

Well, there you have it. A bit short, but it was a good ending point… also, I wanted a short chapter to familiarize the characters a bit more (as well as some description.)

Chapter five will introduce the class system, schedules, and other dormitories and whatnot. Hang in there, readers, the action is heating up in chapters 6, 7, and 8! (3 part fiasco, oh boy!"

And what of Astos? Where has he gone to? And who are the three he was to look after? Stay tuned and find out…


	5. Feuds of Times Long Past

Chapter 5 is in da' house! Thanks to everyone who reviewed (current count: 3) for your kind words. Just bare with the Hero Academy's opening chapters for a little teeny while longer, the action is just around the corner!

--

Feuds of times long past.

"Astos, you're the only one of us who hasn't set up a challenge for their dorm yet. Why taking it so slow?"

Astos ran a hand through his dark hair and sipped from his morning tea. Why he bothered coming to morning pre-activity advisor meetings he'd never know. There was always **something** wrong with his performance to these people. "Well, I guess you could say I'm a bit worried on the subject of just what might happen, were I to set up a challenge."

"What might happen?" the other advisor mocked. He looked frighteningly similar to Astos, save for his bright red hair. "Astos, the only thing that might happen is some one might be killed!"

Another advisor piped up, a female with short blonde hair. "Since when would you care about something like that, Astos? That's not the Astos I remember!"

An older member of about thirty spoke up. "Celia is right, what happened to the cold blooded killer, huh Astos?"

Astos took the comments in stride, and replied coolly. "Burndt!" he shouted across the table. The red-haired one turned to face him. "As my brother, we are allies, yes… but as a leader in the Strife dormitory, we are enemies. Just so you know…" He took another prolonged sip from the herbal tea. "I've been assigned to the three that Master ordered us to look for… including the Orunitia child."

Assorted gasped were exchanged around the table, but Burndt only laughed. "Well that works just perfectly, because I have three rather impressive prodigies of my own. I assume you know of the Argus family?"

Astos mockingly replied. "You mean the High Mage family that has been around globally for over a century? No, I must have missed them."

"Laugh all you want, Astos… but a rather extraordinary member of the family has been sent here… goes by the name of Quayd."

"…and?"

"To make up for lost time, I say you and I put our first-years in a grudge match tomorrow. You can choose the type, I don't care. I just want nothing more…" he smirked, "than to wipe the smile off your face about those three."

He made a decapitating motion with his thumb to his neck. "Quayd will take care of them."

Astos considered for a moment, then smiled and extended his hand. "You're on… I'll tell you the grudge type tomorrow."

Burndt obliged and shook his hand. "May the best man win."

"…Oh, I will."

Rinn was shaken awake by Astos at eight A.M., one hour after the advisor meeting Astos had returned from. He attempted to hide his eyes from the morning sun with his pillow. "Go away… sleep good."

Astos ripped away the pillow and laughed. "Now what kind of way to start the day is that?" He left Rinn and continued to wake up the crowd. Once he was finished, he stood at the center of the sleepy-eyed crew, almost all of which were either fighting off the sunlight or stretching. "C'mon, guys, wake up. Come down to breakfast within the hour, it's eight o'clock. I have exciting news for you when you get there!"

Sending their night clothing down the laundry shoot, the first year Leonharts muddled their way through their trunks, suitcases, and daily morning activities. Jiece, Trent, and Naru finished their works first and left for the hall together.

As Aran and Rinn both tended to the daily task of checking and re-enhancing their magical items and weaponry, Rinn couldn't help but think. _Feh, lucky fighter-based class… they hardly have to do anything._

Aran finished folding his white robes into his stand-up trunk. "Feh…" he declared, "lucky fighter-based class… they hardly have to do anything." He looked to Rinn and smiled. "Done yet?"

"Yeah" he responded, "let's go." As they walked out of the door, he said: "Hey, you know what's funny? I was **just** thinking what you said right before you said it."

"No kiddin'?" Aran laughed. "You can't write stuff like that, Rinn."

"Sure can't."

After walking down about half of the staircases leading up to the dorm, Rinn suddenly smashed into another black mage and they simultaneously turned the same corner.

The other mage stood up first and dusted himself off. "Ooh, sorry about that… you alright?"

Rinn stood up and rubbed his head where he had landed. "Yeah, I'm good… hey; did you just come from the hall?"

"Yeah, actually. You'd better hurry if you want any food… some crazy fighter and bard are eating everything you put in front of them!"

Aran broke in. "What did they look like, exactly?"

The mage explained. "Well, the bard has dark brown hair and about you guys' height… and the fighter has crimson red hair and doesn't seem all that bright."

"Yeah, that'd be Trent and Jiece…"

"Who and what?"

Rinn spoke again. "Never mind, we'll be sure to get down their fast." Rinn noticed something about the other mage… something about him… seemed dangerous. The tone of his voice gave away a sort of… false attitude.

"Yeah, you should." They all went their separate ways and walked on until a few moments later…

"By the way" the mage called from down the hall, "my name is Quayd! It was nice to meet you two."

Again the sense of falseness in that voice… like he was hiding something. "You too!" Aran shouted back.

Once everyone had arrived at the table, and once Trent and Jiece had cleared about fourteen platters of pastries, eggs, and bacon, Astos sat up briskly in his seat. "Alright, everybody…" he started. "Here's the scoop."

"Today at ten A.M. you guys are going to follow your schedules to your classes and have a basic introduction course in all of them. Schedules, by the way, can be found on the back of your maps…" Most at the table took the rolled up paper from their respective pockets to observe. "And return to the dormitory at four P.M. when classes are over. Normally you can just go do whatever you feel like doing after four, but today is special."

Astos took the short time of silence to take a large gulp of his cup of morning tea. "You see, I signed you guys up for a grudge match tomorrow against the Strife dorm's first years."

Mina, Rinn, Aran, Jackson, and Dieh stood up from their chairs in unison. "You what!" the rest of the table was either too timid or full of food to stand, and merely wore an expression of inquiry.

"Set you up for an arena grudge match. You see, for a long time now there has been a certain rivalry between the Strife and Leonhart dormitories. Just to get you guys up to speed on how things go around here, I set you up for an arena combat battle set with them. It's a tradition. It's also why you're coming back to the dorm at four… I'll teach you some survival techniques."

He was now leaning in towards the center of the table, and the others did as he had done. He whispered, "you guys are gonna knock 'em dead!"

At ten A.M. Rinn, Trent, and Aran separated from the rest of the group to go to their first class. Aran pulled out his schedule. "It looks like we have botany first… in the greenhouse outside the back entrance."

"Well, that should be easy enough to find… hell, there's the back entrance now!" exclaimed Rinn. And sure enough, the large marble staircases behind the teacher's table of Celestial Hall lead right to the back entrance. Upon exiting, their breath was taken away.

The monolith of a greenhouse was several stories high, with multiple floors displaying more kinds of plants than Rinn ever planned to know. The large glass windows making most of the outer structure were nearly bulging out of their placement on the upper floors, whose rooms were crammed with great forests of green, yellow and purple.

"Am I the only one that just saw that giant tree moving…?" whispered Trent.

Aran swallowed, "I wouldn't doubt it."

After entering the first floor, the group was introduced to Ms. Enmabury, the botanist who would be teaching them, a short, portly woman with a warm face and smile, and sandy blonde hair in a style that would remind you of Whoopi Goldberg. They were taken up the third floor of the monstrous greenhouse via elevator and introduced to some other first year students.

"Now then, class, today you will be learning about the basics of instant growth." She plucked a sagging, discolored nut about the size of a fist from a withering tree, which instantly collapsed. "Simply grasp the seed you wish to grow firmly in one hand, focus your inner life energy into the same hand, and constantly visualize the seed and what it will grow into."

She handed out assorted easily identifiable seeds to the class and told them to repeat. "Now I certainly do not expect you to do it on your first try, we will go into more depth of all of this later, just get the basic feel of the steps for now."

By the end of the one-hour class, Rinn had been able to make a leaf from the seed sprout, wither, and die. Aran had turned his into a beautiful, ornate jungle fern, to which Ms.Enmabury nearly fainted in shock and awe.

Trent on the other had merely poured some giant's tonic over the seed, which instantly grew into a large Khazakian flytrap and began to attempt to devour him, much to the entertainment of the rest of the class.

"Do not eat your master!" he shouted. "I created you! Urg… ow, ow, OW! The stomach acid! For the love of god the **stomach acid**!" Any permanent damage was prevented, though the acid burns looked rough. "I totally meant to do that…"

At last, after the long, grueling classes consisting of team ethics, tactics, botany, survival, culinary arts, and separate battle arts, it was four P.M.

Rinn, Trent, and Aran barged out of the doors to their respective battle arts classes in unison. About twelve feet apart from one another, the battle arts classes seemed brutal, from what they could tell by the looks on each other's faces.

They walked back to their dormitory, panting and bruised.

"So… how was swordsmanship, Trent?" asked Aran.

"Pretty sweet… I didn't know that I could dislocate my own arms for swordplay. Seems I'm the only one in class who can do that… weird, huh?"

"Yeah," Rinn smiled, "weird. What about you, Aran… was holy magic any good?"

"Nothing I didn't already know… basic stuff… you?"

"Yeah, I already knew how to a level one fire spell… ha-ha…"

After a moment of silence, they shouted in unison: "I'm lying! It was horrible!"


	6. Tower of Power, part 1

Yeah, yeah… the last chapter had a crappy ending point, I know, but it was getting too long, gimme a break! I even had to speed through most classes! It was… painful, but I'll get to those after the tower of power. So here it is, the first multi-part chapter of Hero Academy: The Tower of Power!

The Tower, pt.1

"Damnit… this poison looks bad… Rinn, don't move that arm at all or it'll just spread." Aran sifted through his medical pouch looking for an antidote. "Just hang on, Rinn… I'm sure a have one."

"No problem…" Rinn said through clenched teeth, trying to ignore the burning pain crawling slowly up his arm. "Just hurry, would ya!"

Aran gave up and took out a knife. Rinn immediately reacted. "There is no friggin' **way** you are cutting off my arm!"

Aran smirked and quickly slashed a line through his fore and middle fingers; he drew a piece of paper from the pouch and began to draw a tarot symbol in blood. "I don't have antidote, so I'll just have to draw up a halting charm. It'll stop the flow of your blood in that arm so the poison can't spread."

"And how long is this going to ta- ARGH!" Rinn could feel a sudden burst of renewed burning when he accidentally moved his arm, the skin now visibly starting to dissolve.

"Gimme about five minutes!"

"Aran!" Rinn near shouted in desperation, "We don't have five minutes! In another few seconds those statues will resurrect themselves and tear us to bits!"

Trent came forward from the crumbled wall he'd been slammed into earlier. "I'll… hold them off…" he mumbled, clutching his aching side.

The timer glyph rang out; signaling four minutes had passed, and reset itself for another four. The charred statues were reformed from the pieces that had been left from Trent and Rinn's last assault, and slowly advanced upon the three.

"Hold them for a couple of minutes, Trent! I can't come away from this charm or it won't work!"

"No problem…" Trent made a slight dismissing motion towards them. "I got it." With that, he stepped forward and drew his leaf-blade sword, which broke into pieces almost immediately after being moved. "Damn… that ain't gonna fly…" With the statues still advancing, Trent adopted a martial arts stance. "I'm kung-fu, bitches!" He shouted.

The large gargoyles remained unhindered. Trent smirked, "fine then…" He jumped several feet into the air and brought up his left leg, ready to crash it down upon landing. "Fighter Technique: Earth-Shaker Stomp!"

21 hours earlier…

"Well, I'm glad to see you all survived the first day." Astos said, while the group finally reached the makeshift training ground. "Just gimme a sec to…" he placed a head on the last of a long line of wooden dummies. "There we go!"

The battle area Astos had set up was small, but well put together. The sandy-covered area had lines of dummies placed periodically around it, a few hand-drawn boundaries for range practice, and some tougher metal dummies for harder attack training.

"Alright then, split up into your groups so we can start." The party did as they were told and split up into their groups of three. Paris, Naru, and Jiece… Jackson, Mina, and Dieh… and Trent, Aran, and Rinn.

"Alright guys, who can tell me the first lesson of any fight?"

Trent's hand shot up into the air "to kill the enemy." He said confidently.

Astos stifled his laughter. "Exactly, Trent, now go kill that straw dummy in the front, we'll learn from your ways."

Trent immediately took off and drew his leaf-blade sword from its holster. He raised it high into the air and jumped for a downward thrust, to which the straw dummy hopped backwards on its wooden pole, leaving Trent to strike the ground. It drew a wooden sword from inside its straw coat and lunged at Trent.

"Bushido Style: Eject!" it shouted in a metallic voice as it swung the blade to smack Trent in the gut, "ejecting" him from fighting distance, right into the academy outer wall.

Astos cleared his throat. "And **that** is why you don't rush head on into your enemy like that. Wait for the opportune moment to strike. Moving on, I want each of you to…"

"Astos! Does this belong to you, perchance?"

Astos and the group turned back around to see Verikk pointing to a dazed Trent, who was lodged into the wall. Verikk peeled him out of the wall, which instantly repaired itself.

"Verikk! I see you're doing well." Astos walked up to meet Verikk and patted him on the back. He turned to Rinn and the others. "Guys, this is Dr. Verikk Furston, but you just call him Verikk. He's a very skilled teacher here, if you didn't already know. He didn't teach you guys today, but you'll see him eventually."

Verikk set down Trent and laughed. "Sucking up won't do you any good, friend. Tell me, what are you all doing out here?"

"I was just going to show the guys here a thing or two about survival tactics and standard grudge match battling… wait, what are **you** doing out here, then?"

"Oh, you know, just going for a walk. But I can tell by Trent here that you're not doing so well with the training."

Trent, who was still laying face-down in the ground, raised a hand in objection. "The sun was in my eyes, I swear." He said in a voice muffled by the dirt.

Verikk stepped to face the others. "Astos here isn't much of an instructor, so if he can't fulfill his duties, just tell me."

Jiece snapped and grinned. "No problem, Verikk. We'll let ya take care of him."

"Jiece, don't make me force you to take on the next dummy…" responded Verikk slyly.

Jiece stood at attention. "Yes sir!"

Verikk put Astos in a light headlock and punched his head playfully a few times. "Tell you what, Astos, I'll give them a little morale boost, then you can take over, alright?"

Astos broke free and rubbed his head. "Sure, go for it."

"All right then, guys." Verikk stepped out from the shade of the tree they were under into the sunlight and approached the field. "Maybe this'll give you something to shoot for." Verikk faced the front of the field and acknowledged the dummies putting up their guards. He clasped his hands together and made an "O" shape with them. Slowly Verikk lifted the symbol up to the sun and a beam of light siphoned through them onto his body.

There was a flash of bright light and Verikk was left changed. The loose dark brown hair was now kept neatly into a short braid and a black and silver plated collar hung loosely around his neck. His black and white tunic was now padded with what seemed to be a much sturdier cloth, almost armor-like. But what caught Rinn's eye were his shoes. Jet black shoes… they seemed to be stained with…

_Blood!_ Thought Rinn.

_Precisely…_ came Astos's voice.

_Astos? How can I hear you in my mind?_

_I'm speaking to you through thoughts… normally I can't hear what you say in your mind, but when you just shout it like that when I'm right next to you, it's pretty easy to hear._

_Oh… anyway, what's with Verikk's shoes?_

_You know, Verikk is a great swordsman… one of the best… but he's never thrown a punch in his life…_

_Never?_

_Nope… all hand-to-hand stuff is foot-to-foot for him, he uses kicks._

_How do you-_

_Shh! He's starting, watch._

Rinn focused back on Verikk, who was slowly pulling a blade from its sheathe on his side. A katana was drawn and pointed towards the dummies, about five feet away. After a moment of silence, the blade suddenly shot forward in length and covered that distance, now almost seven feet long in total. Verikk jumped directly straight up into the air and disappeared.

Assorted gasps and murmurs were exchanged amongst the so-called crowd. "Show off…" concluded Astos, grinning. Verikk reappeared in the center of the field, landing hard on the unfortunate dummy in the center and began the assault.

Verikk grasped his great katana and leapt a few yards to the corner of the field and slashed broadly, cutting down the dummies in the area. He disappeared again and reappeared in the opposite corner, and stabbed the steel puppet in the chest. He jumped up on the katana prodding from it and round-house kicked its head off, only to disappear once more and come back into view in the dead center of the field, great katana in hand.

"Bushido Style: Shadow Bolt!"

Without moving from his spot, Verikk straightened himself up and bowed. A few seconds later, every dummy fell apart. Verikk started to walk over to the group when the clock struck 4:30. "Oh, dear. I have an advanced fourth-year group to attend to! Pardon me!" he cleared his throat and clasped his hands. "Ninjutsu: Teleport." And vanished.

Astos came forward and clapped. "Bravo, friend…" he turned to face the group. Noticing their stunned faces, he began speaking. "That, everyone, was a very powerful side of Verikk that you do **not** want to tick off. Hopefully seeing Red Shoes' bushido style will give you something to look forward to in your own abilities."

"Red Shoes?" Dieh inquired.

"Yes, that's what we call him every now and then, for his extraordinary kicking ability. The "red" part is for the blood, obviously."

Astos raised a hand triumphantly and the battle field was bathed in a red light, the dummies in their previous state upon its fading. He suddenly took up a very serious, harsh tone. "All of you take up your weapons. Stone barriers will be put around the soon to be enlarged training area momentarily, forming a maze. I want each of you to run the maze with your group, one group at a time. The object will be for you to reach the center of the maze and collect the wooden idol, bring it back to me, and defend yourselves from the guards. Use your cunning and wits, but mostly: **everything** you learned in pre-hero-school. You few made it out of those hundreds of kids for a reason, because you showed enough promise to make it to the hero academy."

He smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "Show me what you got… Dieh, Mina, Jackson; you go first.

"Sir!" they replied in unison. The three ran into the now walled maze and left the others to wait. Pleasant conversation was exchanged between the remaining groups, occasionally broken by shouts of: "Fall back!" "Get 'em!" or some technique name being called out. After ten minutes and a series of loud crashes, Mina burst through the stone wall with her twin buckler-shields, closely followed by the two summoners, holding the wooden statuette of Squall Leonhart and panting.

"Good work, guys. Take a rest… now Naru, Jiece, and Paris."

Instead of rushing into the maze, Jiece took out his lute and began to play a fast paced tune. His fingers strummed the different strings and neigh-impossible speeds for a few seconds when finally he plucked the last and sung out heroically: "Bard Technique: Requiem of Sand!"

The sand under the maze immediately lifted it up a few feet into the air and held it, displaying the contents of the maze in clear view. As Jiece continued to play, he shouted "Paris, melt the sand to glass; Naru, phase through the glass and get the idol!"

Paris and Naru acknowledged their jobs and acted. Paris ran forward and made several fleeting hand signs, in the end holding up the triangle shape to her face. "Dragon Technique: Fire Breath!" and breathed into the triangle, creating a wide-spread fiery wind which melted the standing sand to glass. The glass immediately shattered under the immense weight of the stone maze, but Naru had already phased in and out of it, holding the idol.

Rinn immediately got up and cheered, along with a few others. "Yeah guys, that was awesome! Great use of fire and everything! Woo, that was incredible!"

It was finally Rinn's group's turn. But before anything could be done, Trent stepped forward. "Sit back down guys; I know exactly how to solve this alone." and rolled up his sleeves, stepping towards the outer maze wall. Specifically, at the point directly in front of the Idol stand.

Rinn and Aran say back down near the shady tree. "You think Trent knows what he's doing?" asked Rinn.

"Rinn, from what I've learned so far about Trent, he's probably going to try and ram right through the stone walls, instead of doing something intelligent."

"…the sad thing about that is… you're completely right."

Trent crossed his arms defensively and charged at the wall.

"Yeah… he's gonna ram it…"

"Yup."

"…I'll bet you fifty gil he fails."

"If I took that bet, I might as well just bury the money."

Astos interrupted. "**I**, on the other hand, **will** take that bet. Put me up for fifty gil, Aran!"

Trent was about a meter away from the wall. "Secret Zodiac Style: Charge of the Ram!"

**CRASH!**

Aran and Rinn were left with their mouths agape, along with almost everyone else who saw. Trent had smashed right through 15 walls of solid stone… with his **head**…

"Pay up."

A shout came from the center of the immediately rebuilt maze. "Secret Zodiac Style: Jump of the Crane!" and Trent landed from the massive jump right in front of Astos. "Here you go."

"Well, I'm quite impressed, Trent. You're able to pull off Zodiac moves so easily?" Astos questioned.

"Not really… in fact, my legs won't move for a couple of minutes after the jump… and I can't feel my face." Trent flopped face-first into the ground and muttered darkly. "Curse you physics… you'll get yours one day…"

Astos snapped and the maze disappeared, the dummies lines up in a battle formation… three groups of three. "After Trent moves again, the next thing you guys are gonna do is fight your doppelgangers… Trust me, after this, you guys are gonna kick the Strife dorms' sorry butts!"

"Oh and… Dieh and Jackson."

The two looked up at their advisor.

"I realize you couldn't help Mina much because of the nature of your professions, being how summoning takes up so much energy and all… but don't hold back this time, I'll get Verikk to fix you up afterwards, alright?"

Rinn could almost see the new aura of excitement around Dieh and Jackson.

"Righty-oh!"

"Gotcha!"

"Now before we continue the training, I'd like to say…" He paused for dramatic effect. "Be on guard, this is where the hard stuff starts. Tomorrow… we dominate!"

This was met by a collective "**Alright!**" as the sun now slowly began its descent.

Sorry for taking so long! I blame SONY for making Kingdom Hearts 2! Well anyway, I know that this didn't involve the tower of power **just** yet, but don't worry… it's coming. As for the long-ish Verikk scene… sorry about that… but Verikk has major ties with the story, and I wanted to introduce him better.

FOREWARNING: Advent Children comes out to U.S. tomorrow, and I am going to buy it… and spend my WHOLE DAY trying to resist it… I promise I'd watch it with a friend… on Thursday, so I'll be working on Hero Academy a **ton**. Also, on April 28th, 2006, I'm going on a four-day class trip, so I won't be working then. I might have to watch Advent Children early for a spur of inspiration to put a new chapter up before then, who knows. But until then, **I need sleep**. I stay up till midnight **every night** for you people. –Cheers, Jiece.


	7. Tower of Power, part 2

Alright, I hope no one minds that part one of T.O.P (tower of power) had nothing to do with the TOP… I wanted to get a little Verikk background mixed with Trent hilarity followed by some explanations… well… nothing more to say… enjoy!

The Tower, part 2.

"So Astos… what's it going to be for the match, huh?" Burndt looked smugly across the table to Astos.

"I've decided to pick your personal favorite, Burndt..." he downed his green tea in one gulp. "Hopefully we'll get a good show from 'em, eh?"

"So you mean…"

"Oh, **I do** mean…"

"The tower?"

"…exactly…"

At noon on the second day of school, the first-year Leonharts were gathered to discuss their grudge challenge to take place in one hour. Rinn rubbed the back of his neck painfully. _Damnit… how am I going to do much when I'm sore all over? …Then again, we're all completely sore and worn out! We're gonna get our asses kicked._

"Good morning, everyone!" Astos came from out of nowhere to the table. "How're you all doin'?"

"Sore."

"Tired."

"Pained."

"Sleepy…"

"Yeah, I kinda thought that would be the case… but on the bright side, we got some good training in yesterday!"

"Astos", said Paris. "N-no disrespect or anything… b-but how can we fight when we're all worn out like this?"

"Paris, I'm glad you asked that." said Astos. "I have two sets of good news and two sets of bad news."

He cleared his throat and put another packet of ground tea leaves in some hot water. "I have here with me… a bit of some very potent herbal tea mix that you can use… drink it, and all current physical ailments will leave your body for six hours, which is more than enough time to go through your grudge match. Bad news is, though, that after six hours are up, the bruises and sores will return… about 40 stronger than before."

There were assorted groans from the team.

"**But** I managed to get you all pardons from classes tomorrow so you can have all day to recover. Bad news again is that missing a day of school will set you back a bit, of course."

But most had already picked up a packet of the dark red substance and ignored him. Trent was, surprisingly, ahead of the rest and sat down at the table with multiple mugs and cups for the drink, filled with steaming water. The group proceeded to prepare their respective packages of tea in silence, still unsure about the challenge.

After a few moments of silence, Aran raised his glass to the center of the table. "A toast…" he said, "to victory."

The others raised their glasses as well. "To victory!"

Many students had filled the stadium from top to bottom, cheering on the hopeful young first year students in their first of many grudge matches to come. Many others, though, held their silence; irritated at the wind whipping sand into the right side of the stands.

The two teams walked out from opposite sides of the stadium towards the center, where Gana was waiting. When they had reached their destinations, he began to shout to the crowd in a loud referee tone. "In this corner, weighing in at a total of 1, 201 pounds, we have the Strife Dorm's first year students!" Flurries of cheers followed his words. "Though somewhat new to the game, Strife's first years are among some of the most deadly I've seen in a long while, folks!"

Strife's one forth or so of the stadium rang out in joy and excitement.

"And to this corner, we have the Leonhart dorm's first year students! Blessed with the mark of the pure, Leonhart's history of battle is one to look up to, let us assume that these nine young warriors will not disappoint that history, eh?"

Leonhart's section of the stadium burst into cheers of enthusiasm.

"And without further adieu, I present… the tower of power!"

Gana raised his arms high into the hair, met by uproarious shouts from the onlookers. A large, circular section of flooring in the center of the stadium began to open up, the sand around the edges falling into the crevice as it did so. When the large stone cover to the circular impression had disappeared, a gargantuan stone structure began to slowly rise from the hole.

Floor after floor after floor, the tower rose from underneath the flooring towards the sky, showing off its 16 floors of brilliantly fitting architecture, resembling a many-storied, smaller (but taller) version of the roman coliseum. Gana put down his hands and once more addressed the crowd.

"The rules… on each floor, there is one white bead located somewhere amidst the obstacles. To win, a team must make it to the top of the tower with at **least** nine of the 16 beads. There will be deadly obstacles, rest assured. However, as in any official school match, judges will be watching your every move. Should you become incapacitated or in serious danger, you will be warped from your current position to the infirmary, where you shall be treated of all wounds."

He walked through the two opposing teams, staring each other down. He waved a hand as he passed. "Begin!"

Both teams turned to their respective advisors, whom both nodded. The teams rushed towards the opposite entrances of the tower, eager to begin the challenge.

The Leonhart team reached their door, which appeared to be made of some form of metal… barred, chained, and welded shut. Trent backed up, and then ran right at the door with his fist clenched. He smashed his fist against the metal, which was met with a sickening cracking sound.

"Dear sweet jeebus!" Trent cried out, clutching his hand in pain. "Shake it off… shake it off…"

Naru stepped forward and put on a pair of sleek, black gloves. "Let me try…" she brushed back her light brown hair and placed her hands firmly on the door, phasing through it seconds later. There was a clicking sound from the other side of the door, and it swung open with ease. "C'mon!"

The others raced inside; it was well-lit and made of solid stone. A pedestal was in the dead center of the empty room. Jackson approached the pedestal and examined it. In the center was a small white bead.

"Guys, get over here."

The others crowded around, Jackson plucked the bead from the pedestal and they waited for something to happen… nothing did.

"Well then…" Mina said sarcastically, "**that** was certainly a death-defying task."

Suddenly the door from the other side burst off its hinges and flew into the room, slamming into Dieh and Mina as it did. A green blur flashed into the room and grabbed Jackson by the wrist, throwing him into the wall in an explosion of dust and sand. When it cleared, a ninja clad in a green gi and purple scarf was holding the bead. The others ran to help Jackson, but stopped upon finding that they couldn't move. Quayd walked into the room, brandishing an oak staff that was glowing a feint purple.

"Well, well, well… so many fall to the powers of gravity, hm? Don't worry; the spell will wear off by the time our team gets enough of a head start." Quayd walked up to Rinn and looked him over closely. "Humph… signature Orunitia traits… and if I'm not mistaken, that means I could…" he grabbed the top of Rinn's straw hat and ripped it off, immediately, Rinn's vision began to falter as sight was slowly blocked out by bright light.

Quayd smirked. "You being the only mage, you're the only one who could break my gravity spell… that is, if you could see!" He walked towards the staircase in the back of the room. "Our team has split into three groups of three… we already have three beads… and you guys can't even move… pity."

Naru burst out in rage. "You son of a **bitch**! This isn't even fair! You can't just go around cheating with your higher level spells like that! It doesn't give anyone else a chance!"

Quayd chuckled a bit. "Sara, remove that stone brick blocking the last of the sun from Rinn… Eriq!"

A shady looking boy stepped out from the shadows behind Quayd. The creepy-ness added to his appearance by his long, grey hair was surpassed only by his sagging eyes, which gave him the appearance of insomnia.

Quayd smiled. "Shut the loud one up."

Eriq raised his hand behind his back and grabbed a wooden club; he approached Naru and tapped the side of her face with it. Slowly, a pale vine grew up from the ground and wound its way around Naru's body and tied itself around her mouth, muffling all sound. At this same moment, Sara removed the stone brick in front of Rinn, letting the sunlight seep right into his eyes.

The three of them began to walk up the staircase. "I think we've done enough damage here…" commented Quayd.

**Meanwhile…**

Astos once again wrote a letter to his mysterious superior.

_Master, I did as you instructed and "trained" the children to find their strengths… and unfortunately there is much to fear. They're smarted than the normal kids… pretty strong, too. Those specific three are especially quick learners; as well… we must capture them quickly, in my opinion. _

_Signed, Astos._

_P.S. pardon the intrusion upon your decisions, but may I suggest Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz to do the job?_

Astos folded the paper and sent it flying down the hall, a response arriving minutes earlier.

_You know as well as I that you have no room to request any such assistance or to intrude upon my judgment… though I will pass it by **this** time, Astos. Your idea intrigues me…_

**Well howdy-dee-do, folks! There goes part two. I think that I may have to make it a four part-er, there is more material than I thought in this session. Also, sorry for the late update, I got sidetracked with Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.**

**It's not new, yeah, but DAMN that is an addicting game right there. **

**Exams coming up soon, might not have a chapter out for a while… but I'll try. Also; Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz are the three antagonists from final fantasy VII: Advent Children, in case you didn't know. I just saw AC for the fourth time and I just HAD to put them in.**

**Ranting time!**

**Today's rant: disclaimers. **

**Alright, why the hell do you put "note: I do not own (insert copyrighted franchise here), this is just a fanfic…" on the top of a FANFICTION? Jeebus, people, it's a fan fiction… of COURSE you don't own it! If you're writing a fan fiction (key word: fan) about something, then you obviously don't own it… or else they'd be "owner fictions".**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	8. Tower of Power, part 3

**2sidez, you rock. Being reviewed is just a really nice feeling, so since you left 3 you rock now, alright? So anyway, yeah… it's final now. TOP is going to be four parts… I keep getting good ideas to flood in there! Lastly, can someone please leave a section in their review to answer the following question: Is my writing style getting too sloppy? (I'm worried about it… I feel a lack of inspiration when I write now; it's not a nice feeling.)**

The Tower of Power, part 3: the great escape!

"Eriq, you got the bead?" Quayd whispered through a crack in the wall of the third floor. Dark, twisting vines began to pour out of the crack and slither onto the floor, forming a human-like shape, which materialized into the dark, brooding form of Eriq.

He held the gleaming white bead in his hand and showed it to Quayd. "Not a problem…"

Sara jumped in through a window and landed in front of them both. "Genya, Andrew, and Stil almost have the fourth floor down. And Zach, Leer, and Hannah are moving to the fifth as we speak."

Quayd shifted the three beads they had claimed so far in his hand. "Too easy, guys… too easy."

**Meanwhile**

Rinn and the others had given up against the force of Quayd's gravity. Trent, Naru, and Jiece were forced to the wall by their wrists, hanging inches above the ground. Dieh was stuck to the floor by the waist, while the rest were done in by the gravity around their feet and legs.

"Damn it… that light…" Rinn muttered weakly, still blinded with his hat just out of reach. "I could break it… if only…"

After minutes of silence, Dieh spoke. "Hey guys, I just noticed something…" he used his free hands to try and move a fallen leaf, but it wouldn't budge. "This leaf is a living thing, and it can't move an inch, just like the rest of the living things in here, right?"

There were murmurs of agreement.

"Well, if the living things in this room are frozen completely, then how is Jackson still moving?"

It was true, Jackson was moving slightly in his unconscious sleep, blood trickling down his forehead where he hit the wall. He pointed weakly in the air and muttered in his sleeping state. "Heh heh… silly monkey…"

Mina shrugged with her free arms, still completely frozen from the waste down. "Maybe 'cuz he's unconscious?"

Rinn snapped back into confidence. "Unconscious, huh? Sort of like a 'fake death', would you say?"

"Um… maybe, I guess…"

"Dieh, try move some of that rubble!"

Dieh did as instructed and flicked a small piece of gravel, which flew across the room and hit Jackson on the side of his neck. He stirred. "Ow…" he said, rubbing his neck in irritation. "Why'd you have to go an- GLORF!" Jackson was immediately pinned to the wall by his neck and arms.

"Ingenious!" Rinn exclaimed. "The gravity took effect as soon as he regained consciousness! That means is you **lose** consciousness, you won't fall to the effects of Quayd's gravity!" After a few moments of confused silence from the others, Rinn turned towards Trent, smiling at his plan. "Trent."

Trent looked back towards Rinn and sniffed. "Meh?"

"Can you still dislocate your arms?"

A few others began to see what Rinn was getting to. "Yeah… why?"

"Just do it now, you may be able to save us!"

Trent obeyed and moved his body around a bit, twisting his arms a bit and moving his shoulders around. He, using the gravity effect as a balance, leaned to one side and popped his arm out of his shoulder socket; the resulting sounds making everyone cringe. He did the same with his other arm and after a few moments, fell down to the ground, and flat on his face. "Ow… Damnit physics, how many noses must you break before your blood thirst is quenched?"

"Okay Trent, get up and move everyone out of the room."

After doing so, everyone regained full movement of their bodies and rejoiced. They gathered in a circle and planned their next move, away from the danger of the newly dubbed "gravity room." Dieh signaled for everyone to come closer to the center of the circle and began to whisper. "We need a plan to get the beads from Quayd, find the remaining ones, and stop the Strife team all at once, anyone got anything?"

After a moment of silence, Rinn stepped in. "I had a lot of time to think while we were trapped… here's what we're gonna do…"

**30 minutes later**

Genya and Stil ran up to the twelfth floor, alone because Andrew had been incapacitated by the previous floor. Upon examining what seemed to be a wall puzzle of some sort, they began to work on it. After about ten minutes, they succeeded and were about to walk trough the newly opened doorway when a blur passed the large window as high speed.

"What the heck was that?" Genya started.

"Probably just Sara showin' off her ninja speed, ignore it." Stil responded, contempt in her voice.

The blur passed the window every time they were about to walk into the new room. Stil finally gave in. "All right, what the hell?" She walked up to the window and was struck by a powerful uppercut from the floor as the walked through. Naru jumped back after the bunch and phased through the wall behind her, becoming a host-less shadow on the wall as she did so. Stil regained her composure and punched the shadow, which moved out of the way, as Stil crushed her hand onto the wall.

Genya ran over to her. "You okay?"

Stil faced the pony-tailed samurai and shook him in rage. "I'm gonna kill that bitch!" She found the shadow on a different wall and struck it with her hammer, the shadow moved out of the way again and again. Stil was about to pound the next shadow in, but stopped a foot away from it and leaned in very closely to examine it. "Is this a… **chalk drawing** of a shadow? Cuz it ain't foolin me." She turned to walk away.

The chalk spoke in Naru's voice. "Sucks for you then."

Stil whipped back around. "What did-" But she was cut short when Naru leapt out of the shadow and tackle-punched Stil in the face, immediately hopping into the next wall and scurrying away.

Genya went to her side to tend to her wounds, but she brushed him off and stood up with a crushed dignity. "That…" she concluded, "didn't just happen."

Suddenly, Rinn walked into the room from where Naru had left, in blatant vision of the two. Genya drew his great katana. "You got a lot of nerve coming up here alone after what your teammate did."

Rinn simply continued to walk forward towards them; both with their weapons draw now, and kept a smirk on his face. Once he was only two feet away from them, Genya and Stil both raised their weapons for the killing blow. _Oh, that mage has got it in for him!_

Suddenly, Rinn's voice came from directly behind them, causing them to stop instantly. "Oh, did I forget to mention…"

Alarmed, Genya immediately turned. "It's a trick, he's behind us!" Stil turned as well, both only to find an empty hallway.

Rinn held a fire spell in each hand, to the back of their heads, the dire heat informing both of them that this could only end in pain. Rinn continued to taunt them. "-that I am very good at throwing my voice." He smirked.

In his final moments before being warped to the infirmary, Genya could only state three words: "Damn you, mage…"

The following explosion could be heard throughout the stadium.

**Meanwhile (again)**

Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz headed towards the parking garage, where they had left their motorcycles to meet with "the master."

Kadaj spoke first. "So the master needs us to take some kids out… that's my kind of work, nice and easy."

"Do not forget it must look 'accidental', brother." said Yazoo.

"Oh don't worry, it will. I already have the perfect plan to get us in and out with no problem."

Loz hopped onto his motorcycle and revved it up. "Don't get carried away, brother, we don't need any extra blood on our hands."

Kadaj and Loz sped away on their motorbikes. Yazoo pulled out a picture of the Calamity: JENOVA. He stared nostalgically and held it close to him. "Yes, Loz… it is what mother would want."

**Record time, guys! Woo-hoo! I think I've found that I gain my inspiration from reviews… I just love getting them so much, I was just so eager to keep writing, even after just that one review from 2sidez. Weird, huh? (Hint, hint)**

**Ranty McRanterson (rant)**

**Today's rant: Next-Gen consoles. **

**Well then, Xbox (aka "buttsex"box) already came out with the 360. Impressive, small, shiny, good graphics. But GOOD GRAPHICS DOES NOT MAKE A GOOD GAME, BILL GATES! Anyway, Xbox360 is about 400$... expensive.**

**Meanwhile, the fabled PS3 is supposedly gonna be a bitch about it and be 500-600$... WTF Sony…**

**Finally the Nintendo Revol-- I mean… the Nintendo Wii. The name is hilarious, Nintendo rules, and is said to go for 250$... Nintendo, I love you.**


	9. Tower of Power, part 4

**Well I gotta tell you people, it's official: you're reviews give me strength! Sorry about not finishing in 3 parts, again, I just worked with it more and more. Don't be expecting daily updates, now, but I'm really getting into this story now, so it will be more common. Today we finally get an in-depth look at the tower of power, and not just situations that happen as results… Oh, and also: this last segment of TOP will be longer than usual chapters, just warning you. **

**I'm not going to pay attention to the size of the file because I want to get all focusing on storytelling and detail, so bare with the length. (It won't exceed 2.5 times the normal length, hopefully.)**

The Tower of Power, part 4: a down to earth finish!

Rinn examined the four beads they had procured from Stil and Genya, with him was Aran, Paris, Jackson, and Dieh. The beads sparkled in his hand and sang like crystal bells when they clanked together. Under the milky white-ness of the out shells, Rinn could swear he saw lettering of some sort… _Is that-?_

Trent crashed through the ceiling and onto the floor, landing heavily on his legs… a bit too heavily. "Ow…"

He was followed by Mina, Naru, and Jiece; whom was holding onto three more beads. He walked up to Rinn and gave them up. "Unfortunately, it looks like Quayd and company have a majority of their teams' beads, so getting him is unavoidable."

Rinn stood up and wiped out the plan with his foot. "Then we'd better start climbing the tower to the top. By the way, what did you do with the other three Strife members?"

Mina stepped forward. "Well, two were warped out during battle, and we threw the third out the window for not cooperating."

Rinn blinked quizzically. "I didn't see anyone pass the…" Right as Rinn said this, a body outside fell past the window at high speeds, followed his voice trailing off into the distance.

"Damn you aaaaaallllllllll…"

Rinn stared back at Mina briefly. "Yeeaahh… never mind." He walked to the stairway. "Normally I would advise against it, but since Quayd and his group are alone, I think we should split into our three groups and each take a separate remaining floor, if anyone meets up with Quayd, be sure to make lots of noise." Everyone nodded. "Trent, Aran, and I will take the next floor up from here; Mina, Dieh, Jackson, you three go for the floor above us, and Paris, Jiece, and Naru can take the floor after that, agreed?"

"Agreed!" shouted everyone, with enthusiasm. The trek upwards was short, but seemed like hours with no one talking. The silence hung over everyone like a full-body mental weight. When the nine teammates reached the 13th floor, Rinn signaled for the rest to continue upwards, while he, Trent, and Aran walked through the door the staircase led to.

It was nothing more than a long, stone hallway. Completely empty save for the pedestal at the end and the large golem statues lining either wall. The door behind the three suddenly closed and became shielded with stone, and the slight rumble of shifting stone filled the room. The hall began to shake violently, bits of stone dropping from the walls and ceiling.

When it stopped and the dust cleared, the golem's eyes were glowing and they began to move from their initial positions. They clomped to the ground heavily; the larger ones drew large stone swords and hammers, while the thin ones drew spears and blowguns.

Immediately, if not instinctively, Rinn, Trent, and Aran drew their weapons and back into a tight triangle formation. The heavy stone-men began to, slowly, approach. Trent spoke with a shattered nerve in his voice. "A-alright, I'm best with sword combat, so I'll take the big guys."

Rinn nodded. "I'll get the spear statues…"

"And I'll protect us from the projectiles they throw and heal." Aran concluded.

Trent rushed forward and passed the front line of golems, jumped into the face of a second-liner, and kicked off, knocking the golem to the floor, immediately shattering. While still in the air, he drew his sword and stabbed the golem he passed in the back. It near exploded and blew Trent backwards towards the back of the horde, right in front of the spearmen.

Rinn jumped over the first horde, drawing his staff in mid-air, and landed in front of Trent. "Get them while they turn back around!" Trent nodded and ran off. Rinn swung his staff high into the air and launched an ice spell towards a spearman in the center of the spear horde; it hit and ricocheted into a surrounding few, freezing them along with the first.

Around five spears flew into the air, the first two landing in front of Rinn, the next three were near-direct hits, barely tearing through his arms and left leg. A shining blue aura surrounded Rinn momentarily, and the wounds healed themselves sufficiently. Rinn turned to see Aran in the middle of it all, casting healing Trent and Rinn.

The battle continued viciously for a few minutes until finally Trent vertically slashed through the last sword-wielder. Aran healed up the last of their wounds and the three began to head towards the pedestal. A large bell tone rang out through the room, and Rinn saw a time glyph on the wall, which was blinking "4:00". Without warning it began to start timing from "0:00" again and the bits of crumbled stone began to throw themselves together again.

Aran scoffed. "A timer challenge, I should've known."

Rinn stepped forward, now facing the entire horde at once. "Well I for one am **not** going through with this again!" He lifted his staff high into the air and jammed it into the ground. He put his hand directly above it and put the backs of them together, spreading out his fingers on either side: the sign of fire.

"Black magic combo: Searing Wind!" He blew into the gap in between the two sets of fingers and an enormous rush of flame leapt out from it. The bright blue flame covered the area in front of him, and the sounds of crumbling stone filled the hall.

Rinn fell to the ground as he ran out of breath, panting. Aran and Trent went to him. "Jesus, man. Why didn't you do that before?" inquired Trent while Aran searched for an anti-exhaustion herb in his medical pouch.

Rinn just stared at him. "Yeah, **not **waste all my stamina at the beginning of a battle, **what** was I thinking?"

Suddenly, seven stone darts shot out from the remaining smoke and flew past the group. Four missed, three embedded themselves into Rinn's arm. "Augh!"

Trent ran through the smoke to destroy whatever had shot the darts and Aran kneeled down next to Rinn's infected arm. He examined it closely, Rinn wincing in fiery pain as the sound of shattering stone was heard again, then "oh shit". An explosion from the far side of the hall shook the room and flung Trent into a wall.

"Trent! You okay!" Aran shouted. After a moment or two, Trent weakly raised a "thumbs up" and fell back into the rubble. Aran focused back on the task at hand.

"Damnit… this poison looks bad… Rinn, don't move that arm at all or it'll just spread." Aran sifted through his medical pouch looking for an antidote. "Just hang on, Rinn… I'm sure a have one."

"No problem…" Rinn said through clenched teeth, trying to ignore the burning pain crawling slowly up his arm. "Just hurry, would ya!"

Aran gave up and took out a knife. Rinn immediately reacted. "There is no friggin' **way** you are cutting off my arm!"

Aran smirked and quickly slashed a line through his fore and middle fingers; he drew a piece of paper from the pouch and began to draw a tarot symbol in blood. "I don't have antidote, so I'll just have to draw up a halting charm. It'll stop the flow of your blood in that arm so the poison can't spread."

"And how long is this going to ta- ARGH!" Rinn could feel a sudden burst of renewed burning when he accidentally moved his arm, the skin now visibly starting to dissolve.

"Gimme about five minutes!"

"Aran!" Rinn near shouted in desperation, "We don't have five minutes! In another few seconds those statues will resurrect themselves and tear us to bits!"

Trent came forward from the crumbled wall he'd been slammed into earlier. "I'll… hold them off…" he mumbled, clutching his aching side.

The timer glyph rang out; signaling four minutes had passed, and reset itself for another four. The charred statues were reformed from the pieces that had been left from Trent and Rinn's last assault, and slowly advanced upon the three.

"Hold them for a couple of minutes, Trent! I can't come away from this charm or it won't work!"

"No problem…" Trent made a slight dismissing motion towards them. "I got it." With that, he stepped forward and drew his leaf-blade sword, which broke into pieces almost immediately after being moved. "Damn… that ain't gonna fly…" With the statues still advancing, Trent adopted a martial arts stance. "I'm kung-fu, bitches!" He shouted.

The large golems remained unhindered. Trent smirked, "fine then…" He jumped several feet into the air and brought up his left leg, ready to crash it down upon landing. "Fighter Technique: Earth-Shaker Stomp!"

He brought his foot down to the ground, which spawned a large shockwave that immediately sped past the horde. After a momentary delay, the floor underneath them crumbled into thousands of pieces, leaving the statues to fall through the ground for a thirty foot drop to back down to the 12th floor.

Rinn, his arm now completely lifeless and limp, stood up and walked towards the pedestal. "Thank god that's over with… let's take this thing before anything else happens." He plucked the bead from the pedestal and began to walk away.

Suddenly a bright blue light burst from the pedestal, which seemed to build up until the pedestal crack into two pieces. The two halves fell to either side of the center, revealing a circular blue pad on the ground, the light emanating from the pad to the ceiling.

Trent stepped towards it and put his hand into the light. "What the…" Without warning Trent was pulled through the light and shot into the air, phasing through the ceiling. Rinn looked at Aran. Aran looked at Rinn. "Nowhere but up!" They said in unison and jumped into the light, flying upwards through the ceiling.

Two floors up, the beam stopped and Aran, Rinn, and Trent were dumped off on the 15th floor. Jackson, Paris, and Jiece were already there. The three looked up from another of the pedestals and rushed over.

Rinn leapt up. "Did you get the ninth bead? Where is the rest of the team? Did you find Quayd yet?"

Jiece stopped in front of them, panting. "The pant bead pant…"

Paris cut in. "It's gone! Quayd and his team got here before us!"

"Which means it's an even score of eight to eight…" said Jackson, arms folded.

Jiece regained his composure. "And the others got warped to the infirmary in the last bout… we're the only ones left."

"Well, it's still six on three; we can beat 'em!"

"No you won't…" the brooding voice of Eriq came from the edge of the room, he was accompanied by Sara. They walked towards the six. "We're gonna take care of you guys so we can take your beads and give em' to the master pedestal at the top and win." He pulled out his club; Sara pulled out her dual wakizashi blades. "So you can go quietly or we can beat them out of you."

The gang raised their respective weaponry to accept the challenge. But before anything could start, the room began to break into large, square pieces, like a sliding puzzle. "What the heck!" exclaimed Rinn.

Jackson, who was now on the other side of the room shouted towards Rinn. "That's the challenge of this floor, it keeps shifting!"

Everyone was tossed about multiple times, sometimes almost crushed, until finally it ended. The room had become three separate sections, walled off from each other. In the room closest to the stairs down were Trent, Jiece, and Sara. On the opposite side, Jackson, Aran, and Eriq. And in the center section, with the grand staircase leading to the top floor, Rinn and Paris sat, dazed.

Aran's voice could be heard from behind a stone wall. "Rinn, I saw you got the middle section, you and Paris **get up there**! We'll hold things together down here, so go!"

Rinn and Paris both jumped up. "Right!" They headed for the 16th floor…

In the gigantic staircase, there were paintings on either wall. Paintings of large, hermit crab-like creatures that seemed to be carrying small volcanoes on their backs instead of shells. About halfway up the staircase, the crabs leapt out of the painting and began to spew flames towards Paris and Rinn. Paris turned around and drew her lance, spinning rapidly and deflecting the fire. "Rinn, go! I'll hold them off!"

Rinn finally got to the top floor, it was pitch black dark. The large stone door behind him closed down tightly, cutting off all light. A tiny blue light in the corner flickered on and slowly began to grow, lighting up the large, circular room. Rinn could now see that many of the great heroes were carved into the stone walls. _Zidane… Rinoa… Cloud… Cid…_

He came to one particular carving that caught his attention; he stared at it for a while and sighed nostalgically. "Hey, grandpa…"

"Hello indeed…" Quayd's voice came from behind the large glowing pedestal in the center of the room. Immediately a heavy gravity much stronger than Quayd's last spell overtook Rinn, and he was immediately thrown to the floor, using the strength in his remaining arm to try and keep his body off the ground.

"So Rinn, the great Orunitia child falls too, eh?"

Rinn began to sweat from the great strain put on his body. "What's that supposed to mean?" He said through grinding teeth.

"You know darn well what it means!" he pounded his fist on the wall angrily. "Just because you're the grandson of Vivi, you think you can be better than the rest of us, you filthy Orunitia!"

"What do you have against my family!" Rinn nearly shouted.

"68 long years ago, Rinn… the Argus family had been the great family of mage the world had ever known… for **centuries**… And then, the ninth Great Warrior, Zidane, went on his journey… and was accompanied by an 8-year old black mage."

He turned and walked furiously to Rinn, who was now feeling his lungs being slowly crushed on the ground. "And guess who that mage was, Rinn! Your grandfather! And since then, the Argus family has been forsaken as the best, stripped of its title! Your grandfather Vivi took all of our hard work's rewards away from us!"

He squatted down next to Rinn and smiled. "And now I'm going to take revenge and make you and all of your little friends suffer… when I get through with you, you'll wish you'd never have come to this academy… but I think I'll start with Trent, he looks durable… maybe I can try some new "methods" on him, first…"

Rinn's anger began to rise rapidly as Quayd continued to taunt him. "Or maybe Aran, hm? He looks like a bleeder, to me…"

Rinn began to remember what his grandfather had told him: "Anger is dangerous, and can be used in two ways. You can either channel it malevolently or benevolently…"

"Or maybe, Rinn…" Quayd continued, "I'll work with that little meek one, Paris, first… I can already hear her scream…"

Rinn jolted upright, knocking the gravity and Quayd back. "You will do no such thing, you dirty bastard!" He raised his hands into the air and channeled fire into them, shaking off the halting charm **and** poison. "Fire!" Rinn threw a speeding fireball at Quayd, who immediately grabbed it and threw it back.

Rinn, who wasn't prepared for that, was nearly hit dead on when time seemed to slow. A phantom Vivi came from the Vivi carving and came to Rinn. "Grandpa…?"

"Channel your anger benevolently, Rinn… calm your thoughts…"

"What… I…"

Time resumed its normal speed and Rinn was hit square in the chest with his own fireball. He grabbed it and held it in place, feeling the heat burn his skin. "Benevolent anger, benevolent anger…" Rinn was shocked to find that the fireball had lost its heat towards him, and began to sink into his body.

Quayd, near-blind with fury, rushed at Rinn and was immediately blown away and slammed into the wall by a fiery burst from Rinn. Quayd now looked up, rubbing his head, at Rinn… and was left stunned.

Rinn stepped from the smoldering rubble and smoke, revealing a new-found power. His robes had been overtaken by the fire and replaced with a bright red vest and pants, both with gold trim. His eyes burned with the fury of flame, as did his infected arm. His staff had become a stone torch, brightly aflame at the top. The hat on his head had become red, and the point of it flopped downwards, due to a new, heavy charm hanging from it.

He took a step towards Quayd; the ground sizzled underneath his feet. Through this Orunitia bloodline channeling, he drew power from his fire wielding ancestors, known as blaze mages, and spoke through them. "Quayd, thou shalt not be allowed to commiteth such atrocities as long as I am here to defend them. You shalt be punished for said wrong-doings and I shall be the one to commit such an act…"

Quayd now scrambled upwards and reacted purely out of hate for the Orunitia family. "I'll friggin' kill you!" he shouted and rushed towards Rinn as he made a series of motions with his hand, making a magic seal in the air, unlocking the powers of Rinn's ancestors deep within his soul. "Ultimate Fire Spell: Firaja III!"

Quayd was immediately warped to the infirmary while the rest of the room was filled with immeasurable heat. The stone began to melt and the ceiling began to drip, all caused by what seemed to be a miniature sun in the center of the room, which exploded and blew the 16th floor completely away, the melted stone flying in every direction and falling to the ground below. He took out his eight beads and the other eight that Quayd had dropped and placed them into the master pedestal.

It began to glow after a moment of waiting and the sixteen beads were lifted into the air, the feint letters Rinn had seen earlier were now black and clear, the sixteen beads now read: EVIL UNDER ACADEMY.

Rinn's vision began to falter as he felt the power of the blaze mages taking over, and himself losing his consciousness.

Rinn found himself with his remaining team in front of the bottom floor, the crowd cheering and clapping at their achieved victory. Astos ran over to them and congratulated them. "Guys, you kicked ass! Look at the scoreboard, you even gained a level!"

They looked up at a large "jumboscreen" Rinn hadn't noticed earlier. It had pictures of all eighteen contestants, in two neat columns, with their names and stats next to them. The stats read "WINS, LOSES, and LEVEL."

All the Strife members' pictures had red slashes through them and now had a "1" under LOSES, while all of the Leonhart members' had a "1" under WINS. And finally, under each picture of the Leonhart members, the words "level up" were flashing continuously.

Gana was now beside Astos, and raised a hand for silence. He snapped his fingers and a gnarled staff appeared in front of him. He grabbed it and began to speak: "Brave warriors of Leonhart, you have proven yourselves of worthy merit in this challenge today… therefore it is with great pleasure that I deem you all…"

He waved the staff broadly and the leather patches on their clothing burst into flame, extinguishing themselves shortly to reveal the number two in the corner. "Level two students, congratulations!"

The crowd burst into applause again as Astos offered his congratulations once more. In the middle of it all, Rinn could swear he saw a ghostly form of Vivi in front of him. It winked and disappeared. Rinn smiled, "thanks grandpa."

**-**

**Well, that wraps up the tower of power, folks. Rinn has a new form: Fire Trance! How will that help in the future? Where does Vivi fit into all of this? What evil is under the academy? How are Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo doing on their trek to the Academy? I guess you'd better keep reading to find out.**

**In other news, I am now officially a confirmed member of my church now (woo). We had to give a short testimony about what it was meant to us in front of a whole congregation… guess who went first? Yeah, me… but I did good, I think.**

**Ranty-roo**

**Today's rant: Next-gen consoles 2.**

**Yeah, a second next-gen console rant, deal with it, there are updates.**

**Sony continues to be annoying. Apparently the final version of their "new" controller is going to be EXACTLY like the PS2 controller, only this one has a built-in motion sensor. Hm, motion sensor, that's definitely NOT copied from Nintendo, jeebus… I used to like Sony, but now they're just being weird.**

**No news on Xbox360, but the Wii continues to shine. Classic titles like "Metroid Prime" and "Super Mario" are re-hashing it for the Wii, along with the long-awaited "Super Smash Brothers: Brawl!" (Aka SSBB)**

**SSBB will feature all the old characters along with 5 confirmed new ones: Metaknight (Kirby villain), Pit (from Kid Icarus), Zero Suit Samus (Samus in a blue leotard, no helmet, and laser sword-thing.), Wario, and Solid Snake. **

**Some of the characters are re-done, also. Link is now featured as his matured self from the upcoming Zelda title: Twilight Princess and Mario gets more detailed overalls (again). Really, though, the visuals are stunning. **

**Finally, what we've all been waiting for in a Smash Bros. title: SPECIAL MOVES! AW YEAH! But seriously, don't take my word for it, watch the trailer. Since I cannot write web addresses on this site, just google search "Super Smash Bros. Brawl.", choose the second option. (it just reads "smashbros ENGLISH-JAPENESE-)**

**And after you watch it, you will understand the following statement: Wario, just… ew. Don't do that… nasty.**


	10. 3 of a kind: episode 1

**Today's segment will be a bit different… it will be a short chapter featuring the furthering of Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. Also, there will be some character bios (for those of you who need it spelled out to understand character emotions) and THEME SONGS to play in your head while you read certain parts (if you chose.)**

3 of a kind, episode one.

Kadaj signaled for his brothers to get in closer motorcycle formation, Loz to his left, Yazoo to his right. "Yazoo, how long until we get to our destination?" he shouted over the roaring engines.

"About six days, brother. Are we to meet your contact along the way?"

"Yes. We should be coming up on the rendezvous point any minute now."

Loz cocked an eyebrow. _Rendezvous?_

After another minute or so of riding through the desolate plains of Midgar, they came to approach a perfectly cubicle rock. They dismounted their bikes and walked up to it, Kadaj tapped the edge twice with his double-blade. A hologram version of Astos appeared above it.

"You six days out?"

"Yeah… how did those three do on the tower obstacle?"

Astos scoffed. "Very well, unfortunately… and I made a very unfortunate discovery, as well."

"And that would be?"

"Well, Rinn was fighting Quayd on the top floor. He threw a fire spell at Quayd, who threw it right back, hitting Rinn square in the chest. As I'm sure you've already been told, Rinn's trance ability comes into effect when his emotions are heightened or when he's in danger."

"Of course…"

"Well you see, Rinn **caught** the fireball and absorbed it, right as he hit the trance stage."

Kadaj was shocked, he stepped back. "Absorbed…?"

"Yeah, a bloodline trait he inherited from the ancient fire mages… blaze mages just **happen** to be some of his ancestors… the combination of fire and trance let him tap into his ancestors powers, allowing him to cast Firaja, the mythical fire spell."

Yazoo stepped forward. "So… Rinn can just absorb fire spells," he snapped, "like that?"

"Not only that, Yazoo… if Rinn really can use his ancestor's powers, he can absorb any element, using trance…"

Kadaj spoke again. "So you mean he has…"

"Yes, my friend… Rinn has blue magic…"

--

**Woo… that was exciting, eh folks? Okay, EXTRAS TIME!**

**BIOS- Leonhart Dorm.**

**Rinn Orunitia**

**Class: Black Mage**

**Age: 14**

**Description: Rinn is the grandson of Vivi (final fantasy IX) and wants to become a great hero at the Hero Academy. Clever, cheerful, and slightly clumsy, Rinn is an all around kind-hearted fellow who KNOWS he has a crush on Paris; he just won't let himself acknowledge it.**

**Trent Cedric**

**Class: Fighter**

**Age: 14**

**Description: Trent is a few pieces short of a puzzle, if you know what I mean. Impossible to depress, Trent is a brutish idiot with the appetite of a raging sumo wrestler. **

**Aran Constanople**

**Class: White Mage**

**Age: 14**

**Description: Very wise, but not without a sense of humor, Aran is probably the most well-versed first-year student in the history of the hero academy. Knowledgeable in the ways of the textbook, Aran is a brilliant mind that's impossible to win an argument against.**

**Dieh Bengal**

**Class: Summoner**

**Age: 13**

**Description: Dieh is fun loving and cheerful, someone you might invite to lunch or something, but tends to take a leader-ish role in things. Often mistaken as a white mage, Dieh takes pride in his summoner-ish-ness and wouldn't be caught dead with two things: A staff in hand, and a comeback ready to go.**

**Jackson Crumbley**

**Class: Summoner**

**Age: 14**

**Description: Jackson always gets good grades; straight A's, even! Sharp as a tack in school-work, but not as well versed in the ways of battle. Like all summoners, he is nothing in battle with no one to back him up, but he never let's that get him down! He strives to increase and sticks close to his friends.**

**Mina Kurama**

**Class: Defender**

**Age: 13**

**Description: Tough, headstrong, and short-tempered are probably the three best adjectives to describe Mina. Normally calm, collected, and nice, Mina can get out of and in the blink of an eye. She distance herself from most people and sticks with only her closest friends, and will never give up the fight against her ultimate enemy: WOMANIZERS!**

**Jiece Urashima**

**Class: Bard**

**Age: 15**

**Description: Jiece is light-hearted and cocky, normally way in over his head. About an intellectual equal to a chimpanzee, Jiece was held back a year and seems to bare many similarities to Trent, hence their strong friendship. Jiece is unexcited by most academic subjects except his one true passion: music.**

**Naru Cellminor**

**Class: Ninja**

**Age: 14**

**Description: She's smart, funny, and beautiful, and uses those facts to her advantage. Naru, though intelligent and kind, prefers to spend most of her time mischief making, normally using her ninja skills in the process. Her favorite of these activities is pretending to flirt with guys, getting their hopes up. "They're so funny when they think they have a chance!" she says.**

**Paris Highwind**

**Class: Dragoon**

**Age: 14**

**Description: Shy, meek, yet deceptively powerful… Paris would rather fight off demons than be a public speaker, that's for sure. She doesn't talk much and hasn't had a real chance to prove herself in a fight, but when she uses the signature dragoon "jump" technique, it really hurts! Yes, you guessed it, she is related to Cid Highwind (final fantasy VII), a great hero. **

**THEMESONGS**

**Foreword: check these out online or on iTunes or something, if you want. Some are really good songs, period. Also, not all characters have theme songs yet, be patient. **

**Rinn's theme- "Another world" by Gackt**

**Trent's theme- "Where's the love" by Hanson.**

**Jiece's theme- "U+K" by Gackt**

**Mina's theme- "Respect" by Aretha Franklin**

**General fun-time theme- "Mirror" by Gackt**

**Tower of Power theme- "Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson**

**Dieh's theme- "Chariot" by Gavin DeGraw**

**Our heroes kicking ass theme- "Hell song" by Sum41**

**Flame trance theme- "Temperature" by Sean Paul**

**--**

**That's it for today, no rant for short chapters! I'll see you soon! **

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	11. The Adventures of Trent: episode 1

**For those who hate me now due to theme songs, know this: First off, Gackt is Japanese, and very popular in Japan, so you probably won't find him on iTunes… I might make replacement themes for the ones by Gackt later, so you can actually get them. Also, when I was writing that section it was 3 AM… I was tired, so some might not be accurate. **

**Well, the Tower of Power has been cleared with our heroes on top, and leveled up! Let's see how they're doing…**

The frivolously misdirected adventures of Trent, episode one.

At 10:00 AM the next morning, both the Leonhart and Strife dorms were suffering immensely. Battered and bruised, most all of the first years from the dorms were bed-ridden. In the Leonhart dorm, our heroes are learning to adjust to this new lifestyle.

Rinn just barely felt well enough to read, Aran was fast asleep; Dieh, Jackson, Mina, Jiece, and Naru were all playing monopoly (heroes' edition), Paris was playing "fetch" with Gale, and Trent… well, Trent felt just dandy.

In fact, Trent was just normal Trent, only lying on his bed, with nothing to entertain him. "What's the point of a day off if you can't **do** anything on it…" he said, sighing. "Everyone else is too sore to do anything… explore, make mischief, play pranks on random passer-by's… **anything**…"

He finally sat up and called out to the rest of them. "All right, forget this, I'm gonna go explore the academy, see you guys later."

"See ya…"

"Bye…"

"Good rid- I mean later!"

Trent stood up and walked across the room, opening the door when he reached it. He waved his hand goodbye to the rest "Sayonara" and shut the door behind him, opening it again a second later. "And no one told me that was a broom closet because…"

They all shrugged.

"Right, fine then." He walked across the room once more and left it, walking through the halls. The hallways were actually quite a nice change from the boring old dorm room. Random students sitting here and there, talking and studying, it was a nice "alive" atmosphere to be in. Trent continued to wander the seemingly endless top-floor hallway until the clock tower in the center of the school grounds rang out, and students returned to their classes.

"Well…" Trent said glumly now that he was alone again, "this sucks…" He came to a staircase that led to the roof, and decided to go up. Leaning on the parapet, Trent let the wind blow past him, thinking. Of course, being Trent, it can't be very intelligent thinking… _I wonder how the others are doing… I've only been gone for like, five minutes, though, so I doubt anything happened… Oh hey, it's the greenhouse! It still has that moving tree thing at the top, that's so cool! Oh, I wonder if that plant I gave giant's tonic to is still there… I would like to see him again so I could give him a name… like… Oh, I've got it! I'd name him Carl! Yeah… Carl… I like that… he definitely looks like a Carl…_

Trent's mind left him blank for a few minutes, and then returned. _How come all I can think about is filling a pool with whipped cream? Oh man, that'd be so weird… haha! Whipped cream pool party! Wee! Lalalalala…_

"Ah, hello young sir!" a lightly British-accented voice called out. "Trent, I believe?" Trent turned around to see none other than Dr. Verikk Furston approaching him. "Are you feeling better now from the tower?"

Trent smiled and lean backwards on the edge of the parapet once more "Yeah, but I was never really feeling bad in the first place."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, everyone else is, though… heck, some can hardly move!" He chuckled slightly, and then laughed at how stupid he sounded.

Verikk stepped onto the parapet and sat down, his legs dangling over the edge. "Trent, shouldn't you be off enjoying your free day?"

"Well I would, but you see, I can't really think of anything to do… if I could, I'd probably go to the training area and perfect my sword skills, but I need permission from a teacher or advisor."

Verikk chuckled. "That, my friend, is where I can help." He stood up, "I don't have a class for the rest of the day, or anything better to do, so I might as well teach you something."

"For real!" Trent looked up hopefully at Verikk.

"Of course! Now step on up here." He said, extending a hand to help him onto the edge, which Trent took eagerly. "Now then, lesson one…" Verikk pushed Trent off the edge of the **very top of a 30-something floor giant stone building**.

Trent groped hopelessly into the air while tipping over, his feet still on the wall. Finally he parted with it and went into free fall. "WWhhooaaa!" Trent unwillingly began to brush against the side of the academy. After falling for about ten seconds, Verikk appeared next to him, running down the wall at Trent's falling speed.

"Trent! Make sure your body is parallel to the ground! Put your feet to the wall and run as fast as you can!" He shouted over the roar of the wind rushing past them. Trent did as he was told and put his feet to the wall, his spare momentum immediately catching up with the rest of him and slamming him face-first into it, slowing him down slightly. He once again found himself free falling.

"Try again! This time try working the speed down from small leaps to running!"

Again, Trent tried this, determined to learn whatever it was Verikk wanted to teach him. He put his feet to the wall again and kicked off into a long-jump immediately, his speed keeping him close to the wall. He began to try and slow down, the jumps became skips, and skips became hops, which finally became running.

Verikk pulled up alongside him. "Excellent work, you're quite the fast learner!"

"Thanks!" Trent yelled back, "I get that a lot!" He noticed he was beginning to lose his footing to the steep wall, Verikk noticed too.

"Don't run like you normally would! Lean forward with your upper body and put your arms behind you for an aerodynamic effect!"

Again following instructions, Trent found he could keep a stable cling to the side of the academy. "Thank again!" Trent yelled, his head turned towards Verikk. He looked back towards the ground to see it was about an inch in front of him; he ran right into it.

**SMACK!**

Trent was sprawled across the ground, twitching. "Augh…" He lifted himself up and spat out a rock. "I can't feel my -cough- legs…"

"Well here we are, Trent." Verikk said, sweeping his arm through the air in the direction of the bottom floor. "Training ground 101, for basic warm-ups and skills. Though for our purposes, it should serve quite nicely… follow me." Verikk merrily walked to the door leading inside, Trent limping behind him. When they got inside the empty training room, Verikk held a hand to Trent's leg. "Cure." He said simply, healing Trent up immediately.

"Wow… what **are** you, anyway, Verikk?"

"What am I?" Verikk returned, confused.

"Yeah… I mean, you know black magic, Ninjutsu, white magic, swordsmanship, how many classes do you have!"

Verikk chuckled while he walked over to the supply closet to get a target. "Actually, you just named it all! I'm cross-classed as a paladin and ninja. Paladins can use sword skills as well as lesser white magics; white ninja can use black magic and ninja skills." He pulled out what seemed to be a large steel shield and threw it to the center of the room.

Verikk walked to it and stood in between the shield and Trent. "Kite shield, total defense 101, initiate."

Immediately the shield rose to the air and steadied itself, seemingly braced for combat. Verikk turned to Trent. "Trent, I'm going to teach you something that will come in **very** handy for you one day, I think you might enjoy it… I invented it myself."

"All right!" Trent jumped into the air and shouted, "when do I start!" He drew his sword upon landing.

Verikk laughed quietly to himself. "Right then, adopt a frontal battle stance and perform a horse cut on the shield."

Trent jumped high into the air and brought his sword up high, the same move he used on the wooden dummy on the first day of school. He brought it down with tremendous force onto the hovering shield, which blocked the blow like any other prepared enemy would. He sighed and his sword point tapped to the ground while still in his grasp. "What was the point of that…?"

"Well I wanted you to notice something, Trent. When you collided with the shield, didn't you feel the recoil from the blow lift you up slightly?"

He shrugged. "Well yeah, I guess."

"Right, because of the transfer of energy; the energy you used to hit the shield bounced from the strength in your arms through the sword, through the shield, and back up to you. This caused your sword to bounce off the shield, in turn, bouncing you off slightly."

"Right."

"Now then, instead of gradually increasing your energy through the momentum of the long swing, I want you to focus on putting all your energy into one swipe right before you hit it."

"Gotcha." Trent faced the floating shield again and jumped into the air, raising his sword. He fell back down to earth; his sword still raised, and focused all of his might into one quick swing, the resulting recoil jolted him much higher back into the air, almost back to the starting point of his short swing.

Verikk clapped his hands. "Excellent! You see, Trent m'boy, by launching your self into the air again with that last minute swing, you had enough time to swing again, which in turn would propel you back into the air for another swing. You could continue the chain of attacks for some time without ever touching the ground for your enemy to react!"

At the realization of what he had just done, Trent dropped his sword, his mouth left agape. "Wow… what do you call it?"

"I call them 'beat slashes', because it's more like beating a drum than slashing an enemy. Come, I'll teach you some more."

And so Trent spent the day in the training area with Verikk and learned more advanced swordplay than he had in his whole life up until then. Verikk taught, Trent learned… he learned well.

"Guys! Guys! Guys!" Trent burst into the dormitory room, almost knocking over Jiece in the process. "I went down to the training thing and Verikk taught me stuff and beat slashes and stuff and… and…" he paused when he saw everyone was just starting at him blankly, having no idea what he was talking about. "Yeah… I'm just gonna go sleep now, wake we when dinner's on."

**Meanwhile**

Loz punched out the last of the attacking boars. He set his power-glove back into place and turned the electric current off, heading back to the motorbikes, his hands full of gil, gleaming in the late afternoon sunlight. His bothers had parked in a clearing not too far from the boars' den and let Loz do the senseless killing for gil.

He came back to the clearing, where Kadaj and Yazoo were waiting patiently. "I got about 300 gil from those boars, that's enough to cover charges at the inns for the rest of the trip."

Kadaj took the money and put it in his pocked, then proceeding to rev up his engine. "Good, we have enough time to get to the next town before nightfall, and we don't want to waste time. Come… we leave now."

And they sped off.

**--**

**Yeah, yeah, another filler chapter. I'm tired, okay? Gimme a break… don't think I just ran out of ideas for Hero Academy, heck no. I got it all planned out up until year 3 so far, so updates should remain a rather constant thing, unless I'm going somewhere. **

**Anyway, Trent learned how to use "beat" slashes, and the rest of the gang can hardly move. Yay. I'm really tired now, so I'll leave… but first…**

**Ranting**

**Today's rant: Anime, America, and You!**

**Here in America, we have a cycle of anime… 4kids animation or Funimation purchases rights to a hot new popular anime series from Japan. They replace orchestral music with rap and hip-hop, get the WORST voice actors for the job(s) and violate the series… rectally.**

**Anyway, the young viewers enjoy this watered-down anime series, they eat it up, chew it, and spit it back out. Once the series is rejected, they make a card game out of it, RIGHT WHEN the series is at its peak unpopularity. Little kids see the shiny packages of cards are in and plead their mothers for money to buy them.**

**Upon making money, the companies screw that series over and trash it, either leaving it for REAL fans or just canceling it, then buy the next hot series. **

**Then, there's "adult swim" on cartoon network, which comes on late at night. The anime shown on this block of television is somewhat decent, and much less screwed over. Fullmetal Alchemist, for instance, is quite popular on adult swim.**

**Americanized anime: Let's face it, anime sells. Cartoon artist all over start making their cartoons anime-like and fans eat it up (teen titans). Now I'm not saying this is bad, but it can be… **

**One such case of GOOD "americanime" is Toonami's original series: IGPX. An actual stable plot, great effects, cool experimental music, and really nice looking artwork come together for a pretty good series. Hell, from the creators of "ghost in the shell"! Good work, Toonami! **


	12. Back on track!

**Alright, time for a non-filler chapter. After this one, I have to study for exams for about a week, but I have a long weekend I the middle of them, so I'll see if I can't get one out then. But after that, it will be summer, and I'll have all the time in the world. **

**Well we focused on Trent and Verikk last time, and this time we will be focusing on some classes (as promised) and the Leonhart dormitory as a whole. So I implore you, enjoy.**

Back on track!

"Rise and shine, everyone!" Astos' voice shot out into the room, shattering the sleep of everyone else. He opened a few blinds and sunlight filled the first-year's dormitory. "I have some stuff to do, so I won't be at breakfast, just so you know."

He closed the door and the rest of the team slowly went about their morning routines. Like the first day, Trent and Jiece rushed out of the door first. But, being how they are, they failed to notice that Jackson's bed was black and charred, burned by what must have been a spell, seeing as how no one had any matches.

"What the FUJI? What happened to my bed!" He shouted.

Dieh, who was not even out of his yet, turned over lazily. "Yeah, about that… I think you summon things in your sleep… I woke up in the middle of the night and there was a little fire imp running around here… and you had your staff in hand."

"And you did nothing to stop him because…?"

"It was warm… and funny."

--

That morning, Aran and Rinn were accompanied by Dieh, Jackson, and Paris down to Celestial Hall for breakfast. When they reached the staircase leading to the floor below, Genya, Stil, and Andrew were walking up it. They glanced at the five bitterly as they passed. "Sore losers…" Aran said.

The five joined Trent and Jiece, and were soon joined by Naru and Mina. Rinn looked up from his orange juice and toast to notice something about the faculty table at the front. He eyed it curiously. "Hey, uh, guys? Is it just me, or are **none** of the teachers from the first day sitting at that table anymore?"

The others looked over and, indeed, every teacher they had been introduced to had been replaced by others, except for the headmaster, Verikk, and Ms. Enmabury. "Yeah…" Paris said quietly, "weird…"

After a few minutes, the headmaster stepped up to the pedestal in front of the faculty table and banged his staff against it for silence. "I would like to call attention to all first-year students." He spoke.

"As you may or may not have noticed, most of your teachers are not sitting here at the moment. Though it was not explained to you then, the ones who taught you on your first day of school were substitute teachers, as most of our first-year faculty had arrived late from a prior engagement of the summer. Rest assured, your official teachers arrived as of last night and can assume their teaching duties as regularly planned for the rest of the year…that is all." He sat back down to his meal.

When breakfast ended, Aran, the self-appointed schedule-keeper, met up with Rinn and Trent near the back of the hall. "All right, let's see…" he said, looking at the schedule. "We still have botany with Ms. Enmabury first… and then the schedule after that is different from what we had the first day…"

"Who do we have after botany?" Rinn asked. Aran studied the paper quickly.

"Verikk for history… and then some guy called Mr. King for team ethics and form."

"Mister… King?"

"Yup."

And so the three went to the green house and had their botany class. It was really just exactly the same thing as the first day; they just fiddled around with re-growing seeds again, for practice. "We'll get into herbs and medicines next week."Ms. Enmaburysaid.

Upon finishing, Aran led the way to the library, which was located on the bottom floor, at the far right of the building. Verikk was already waiting for them inside, and they were soon joined by the rest of the Leonhart dorm. "Well, isn't this a coincidence?" he asked, chuckling. "All of you have the same second period… ironic, isn't it?"

Verikk looked rather noble in this setting. Wearing what seemed to bear a _striking_ resemblance to late Victorian men's clothing, he was sitting in a rather lavish armchair beside a roaring fireplace. Surrounded by enormous bookshelves as far as the eye could see, reaching up to the very top of the high ceiling, and supported by the soft orange glow of the fire, Verikk could be mistaken as a billionaire in his mansion study.

"Well then, let's just get down to business, shall we? You may take notes if you wish." He reached for his leather pouch and pulled out a jar of strange sand. The grains seemed to be moving independently around in the jar, changing colors slowly from gray to white to black, then to gray again. He opened the jar and threw some sand into the fire.

There was a moment of silence while they waited for the effects. Slowly, a wisp of smoke curled out from the fire and rose into the air round them, as one long strand. The long coil of smoke detached itself from the fire and curled around itself, like a snake, forming a flat circle of smoke in the center of their circle of armchairs around the fire.

Verikk spoke again, and began to shift the smoke into forms to go along with what he was saying. "Allow me to start from the beginning for our first class…"

He cleared his throat, Dieh, Paris, Jackson, Aran, and Rinn (the only dedicated students) took out their notepads and prepared to jot down some notes. "At the dawn of time…" he began, "there was one almighty being that created all. The plants, the animals… heaven and hell… and all worlds in this universe and all others… know only as Yevon.

"After countless eons of creation, Yevon created the seven civilized races: Human, Mithra, Galka, Tarutaru, Nu-Mou, Baanga, and Viera. These seven races live on our planet on seven different continents, one mainly for each race. But with intelligence, Yevon's gift to the seven races, came the darkness of their hearts. Greed, sorrow, and hatred began to run rampant amongst them.

"Yevon created two lesser gods of darkness and light to balance this problem, and went into slumber. The god of light, Astaroth, and the god of darkness, Rukafelth, being perfect opposites, went to war in the absence of Yevon.

"At this time, the races had not had much time to grow yet, and there were only 77 beings in total. At first the two sides had relatively equal numbers of soldiers on each side, but then the warriors for Astaroth began to give in to the darkness of their hearts, which Rukafelth offered to fuel for power. Eventually, only seven warriors remained for the light, one from each race. The rest had turned to darkness…

"After many months of fighting, a decisive battle was fought… the seven champions of light fought valiantly against the demons of darkness, fighting with the power of light. The demons, however, were slave to a god of greed and hate… and little did they know that Rukafelth, in his greed, had never given up any of his power in their aid, so the demons were vanquished.

"With the help of the seven champions, Astaroth was able to take down Rukafelth, creating a time of peace. For many, many years, the seven races flourished in their peace… but, being a god, Rukafelth could never die… the same went for his minions, who had sold their souls to him so long ago. Rukafelth came back, and plagued the land once more.

"The original champions being dead, Astaroth chose seven new champions of light, one from each race once more. Again they triumphed. Rukafelth continued to return and plague the land like he done many times before, in pure spite of the world and its inhabitants. Time and time again champions were chosen and fought. Many have died in countless battles… bought then peace is restored once more.

"To this day, this cycle continues… periods of war known as the "Miasma", and periods of peace known as the "Calm". Currently, we live in theeleventh documented "Calm" and haven't had sight of a demon since. Though there is a disturbing fact to go along with that…

"During the last Miasma, a demon shot through the ranks of the demon army to the position of commander, the highest rank below Rukafelth himself. His name… was Sephiroth."

This last word hung in the air. The nine of them kept silent, for they had heard of Sephiroth, the cause of so many deaths…

"Sephiroth was truly a nightmare; he was the only demon thus far able to kill a champion of light. Three, in fact, were destroyed by his hand… But after diminishing his forces, Sephiroth was finally destroyed by the remaining four. He was banished to another realm by Astaroth, supposedly never to be seen again.

"Though when Sephiroth was caught and banished, these were his last words: "Know this… I will... **never** remain as a memory."

The bell tower rang out from the center of the school and the twirling smoke disappeared. Verikk stood up solemnly and waved a hand goodbye before walking off to a far-off corner of the library. "You are dismissed…"

**Meanwhile**

Kadaj stepped away from the burning wreckage of what was once a town. He sat on the motorcycle between his brothers, folding his arms. Yazoo smirked. "I assume something went wrong with our... arrangements?"

"Yeah... our airship flight was delayed."

"Brother, don't you think you over-reacted just a bit?" Loz asked as calmingly as possible.

"Yeah, probably..." he sighed, "but the master would be displeased if we were late..."

"Mother would be displeased as well, brother." Yazoo added.

"Yes, Yazoo, mother would be displeased as well. We can't have that."

--

**A little insight on this world's history, I hope you enjoyed it. Nothing to announce for right now,I suppose... um... let's see... what do I normally write in the author's ending section...? Oh, screw it. The point is, I'll continue into the new daily scheduel soon and Kadaj and the gang are almost at the Academy. Also, I got big exciting plans for the next multi-part chapter, here's a preview-ish thing:**

**-Trent becomes a super hero!**

**-Aran learns how to "get down wit' his bad self, yo."**

**-Dieh, Jackson, and Mina track down a rougue lizard-man!**

**-Jiece is popular with the ladies!**

**-And Rinn... well, I'll let you find out.**

**Everyone loves to RANT**

**Today's rant: my really crappy teachers!**

**Well, exams are coming up soon, and some teachers have started to review material for them. OTHER teachers are fat ass-hoboes to assign more stuff to learn RIGHT BEFORE the exams! My history teacher, Ms. (real name not given), is making us know EVERY COUNTRY AND MAJOR TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURE IN THE WORLD! (no, seriously... every one.) Do you know how many things that is? A lot!**

**Meanwhile, my math teacher, Mr. (real name not given) continues to teach new lessons EVERY DAY, even right before exams. So I'm trying to learn new material and review old material AT THE SAME TIME. It's just so... ugh, nevermind, you get what I'm trying to say... it sucks.**


	13. Permanent Bios Page

**Hey everyone, Jiece here. I noticed that the character bios before seemed very lacking in details on appearance, and I want you guys to be able to really picture the characters, so here is another version of the bios, just more descriptive. If you hate me for this 2nd bios thing, I can understand that. Don't hurt me!**

**Also, whenever the character change or gain new moves or something, I'll update this page… so if you ever want to come back to it, I'll try to remember to re-do it whenever something happens.**

**Rinn Orunitia**

**Class: Black Mage**

**Age: 14**

**Current level: 3**

**Physical Appearance: 5' 9" tall, hair: black, eyes: yellow**

**Signature Moves: Searing wind, Fire trance**

**Backstory: Rinn was born into a family of the most powerful magicians in Graphia. His grandfather, Vivi Orunitia, was a great hero, and Rinn wants to be just like him. Rinn was, up until now, protected from those who thought poorly of the Orunitia family, the Argus family in particular. Nothing like this was ever a problem for Rinn until he and an Argus family member, Quayd, were put into the same grade level. Now Rinn, a first-year student in the Hero Academy, strives to become a great hero like his grandfather, armed with Vivi's two heirlooms left unto him: a worn redwood staff and a pointed straw hat.**

**Specialty: Fire magic.**

**Description: Rinn is the grandson of Vivi (final fantasy IX) and wants to become a great hero at the Hero Academy. Clever, cheerful, and slightly clumsy, Rinn is an all around kind-hearted fellow who KNOWS he has a crush on Paris; he just won't let himself acknowledge it.**

**Trent Cedric**

**Class: Fighter**

**Age: 14**

**Current level: 4**

**Physical Appearance: 6' 1" tall, hair: red, eyes: green**

**Signature Moves: Earth-shaker stomp, Beat slash**

**Backstory: currently N/A.**

**Specialty: Momentum-based swordplay.**

**Description: Trent is a few pieces short of a puzzle, if you know what I mean. Impossible to depress, Trent is a brutish idiot with the appetite of a raging sumo wrestler. **

**Aran Constanople**

**Class: White Mage**

**Age: 14**

**Current level: 7**

**Physical Appearance: 5' 10" tall, hair: white, eyes: white**

**Signature Move: Holy**

**Backstory: Born into a great miasma, Aran's father-to-be was killed and "replaced" by a demon spy named Yazoo. As a result, Aran was born part demon. Shunned by the mithran community, Aran was sent to the human continent to live with priests. The priests, in their best efforts, couldn't heal Aran of his demon affliction, so he strives to become a great white mage to heal it himself.**

**Speciatly: Holy weaponry combat.**

**Description: Very wise, but not without a sense of humor, Aran is probably the most well-versed first-year student in the history of the hero academy. Knowledgeable in the ways of the textbook, Aran is a brilliant mind that's impossible to win an argument against.**

**Dieh Bengal**

**Class: Summoner**

**Age: 13**

**Current level: 3**

**Physical Appearance: 5' 7" tall, hair: grey, eyes: blue**

**Signature Move: Summon fusion (w/ Jackson)**

**Backstory: currently N/A.**

**Specialty: Technical, complex summons.**

**Description: Dieh is fun loving and cheerful, someone you might invite to lunch or something, but tends to take a leader-ish role in things. Often mistaken as a white mage, Dieh takes pride in his summoner-ish-ness and wouldn't be caught dead with two things: A staff in hand, and a comeback ready to go.**

**Jackson Crumbley**

**Class: Summoner**

**Age: 14**

**Current level: 3**

**Physical Appearance: 5' 11" tall, hair: dirty blonde, eyes: blue/green**

**Signature Move: Summon fusion (w/ Dieh)**

**Backstory: currently N/A.**

**Specialty: Traditional summons.**

**Description: Jackson always gets good grades; straight A's, even! Sharp as a tack in school-work, but not as well versed in the ways of battle. Like all summoners, he is nothing in battle with no one to back him up, but he never let's that get him down! He strives to increase and sticks close to his friends.**

**Mina Kurama**

**Class: Defender**

**Age: 13**

**Current level: 3**

**Physical Appearance: 5' 10" tall, hair: blonde, eyes: brown**

**Signature Moves: Total defense, Shield tackle**

**Backstory: currently N/A.**

**Specialty: Rage-based attacking.**

**Description: Tough, headstrong, and short-tempered are probably the three best adjectives to describe Mina. Normally calm, collected, and nice, Mina can get out of and in the blink of an eye. She distance herself from most people and sticks with only her closest friends, and will never give up the fight against her ultimate enemy: WOMANIZERS!**

**Jiece Urashima**

**Class: Bard**

**Age: 15**

**Current level: 5**

**Physical Appearance: 6' 3" tall, hair: brown, eyes: purple**

**Signature Moves: Requiem of sand, Well of wisdom**

**Backstory: currently N/A.**

**Specialty: Spontanious, original music making.**

**Description: Jiece is light-hearted and cocky, normally way in over his head. About an intellectual equal to a chimpanzee, Jiece was held back a year and seems to bare many similarities to Trent, hence their strong friendship. Jiece is unexcited by most academic subjects except his one true passion: music.**

**Naru Cellminor**

**Class: Ninja**

**Age: 14**

**Current level: 3**

**Physical Appearance: 5' 8" tall, hair: golden blonde, eyes: green**

**Signature Move: Phase frenzy**

**Backstory: currently N/A.**

**Specialty: Speedy trick fighting.**

**Description: She's smart, funny, and beautiful, and uses those facts to her advantage. Naru, though intelligent and kind, prefers to spend most of her time mischief making, normally using her ninja skills in the process. Her favorite of these activities is pretending to flirt with guys, getting their hopes up. "They're so funny when they think they have a chance!" she says.**

**Paris Highwind**

**Class: Dragoon**

**Age: 14**

**Current level: 3**

**Physical Appearance: 5' 7" tall, hair: light brown, eyes: blue**

**Signature Moves: Jump, Call Gale, Fire breath**

**Backstory: Currently N/A.**

**Specialty: Air-based combat.**

**Description: Shy, meek, yet deceptively powerful… Paris would rather fight off demons than be a public speaker, that's for sure. She doesn't talk much and hasn't had a real chance to prove herself in a fight, but when she uses the signature dragoon "jump" technique, it really hurts! Yes, you guessed it, she is related to Cid Highwind (final fantasy VII), a great hero.**

**Verikk Furston**

**Class: Paladin/Ninja**

**Age: 32**

**Current level: 60**

**Physical Appearance: 6' 5" tall, hair: dark brown, eyes: yellow-green.**

**Signature Moves: Beat slash, Shadowbolt, Suicidal Manuever: Gigabomber XIII**

**Backstory: Currently N/A.**

**Specialty: Confusion tactics and light weaponry.**

**Description: Light-hearted, chummy, and... british? Verikk seems to be pretty much the most polite and friendly person that could possibly live in Graphia. He is absurdly powerful for his young age and seems to be incredibly well versed in just about everything! Though a wonderful person in generally every way, Verikk has some serious mental issues left over from what hints to be a very traumatic event from his past that he constantly denies ever happened.**

**Gana Buroon**

**Class: Monk/Red mage**

**Age: 63**

**Current level: 65**

**Physical Appearance: 6' 5" tall, hair: greying blonde, eyes: brown**

**Signature Moves: Thousand fist strike, Triple-cast**

**Backstory: Currently N/A.**

**Specialty: Heavy assault and defensive manuevers.**

**Descrpition: Gana is (and I quote) "an aging man", so you know he has expirience on his side. Cynical yet wise, Gana tends to take a commanding ruole in things... hell, it's what he's paid to do as the dean of students at the Hero Academy. Though he boasts the emotional capacity of a rhino, Gana takes on a sort of fathering personality towards Astos and Verikk.**

**Astos Don**

**Class: Beastmaster?**

**Age: 31**

**Current level: 46**

**Physical Appearance: 6' 2" tall, hair: brown, eyes: blue**

**Signature Moves: Mind-control, Animerge**

**Backstory: Currently N/A.**

**Specialty: Allied combat**

**Description: Astos is sly, sarcastic, and overly dramatic,though, despite all of this, he really is a nice guy. Astos, being the advisor to our favorite group of would-be heroes, plays a predominate role in their lives... so, yeah, if they end up becoming world saving heroes, we are so screwed...**


	14. Back off track

**Insert pointless recap/jabbering here**

Back off track again…

On the eighth floor, just above the seven story library, Trent flew through the great double-doors into a large, circular room. Jiece walked back to the group towards Rinn. "Told you I could open the door using Trent, pay up."

Rinn sighed and handed over 10 gil.

Trent stood up, about 50 feet in front of the rest, and rubbed his head. A tall, thin man with a rather impressive white breastplate came up behind him. "Are you all quite finished?" They all turned to look at him. His very short, grey-brown hair and long scar running straight down the middle of his face combined to make two obvious impressions of him: he was old, and therefore seasoned in the ways of combat, and he was a **friggin' bad-ass**.

Jiece opened his mouth to say something, but Mina quickly cut in front of him. "Yes, Mr. King." She said hastily, turning to cast Jiece a glare.

"You may take your seats, then." He said, turning back to walk to the center of the room again. The room didn't really have seats, they were more like stands that you would see in a stadium; only much smaller, seeing as how there were only three rows. They went to the empty section of the room-surrounding stands and sat, Jiece laying down and taking up four seats.

To his misfortune, Rinn could see Quayd directly across the room from him. Rinn kept trying to look away but Quayd continued to stare with a silent rage, Rinn could swear he felt a slight gravity spell around him. Mr. King stepped conclusively forward and addressed them all. "In case you haven't noticed yet, the entire first year class is attending this period, and you will continue to attend it all together, every two days.

"Cutting right into business, I have an assignment for you all. Five classes from now, that's ten days, I want each of you to join up with your squad of three and create a signature team maneuver. No team is complete without a team maneuver, and I expect each of your groups two have one in five class periods. This is a team ethics class, so deal with it.

"And furthermore… get out."

Everyone stared at him quizzically. He stood there silent for a while, and then repeated himself. "No, really, get out. I have given you your assignment, at this time every two days for the next ten days, you are to work on your assignment, or in your free time… it's up to you. So, seriously now, get out."

There was some arguing on what to do next with the two hours of spare time they had, and they finally decided to just go back to the dormitory and just laze around. Somewhere in the middle of that time, Rinn managed to convince the others into eating some lunch… a very late lunch.

"Hey, guys, just so you know, the school stops serving lunch at 1:30, its 2:01 right now…" Aran said from his bed in the far corner of the room.

Jiece stepped over from the door he was about to rush out of. "Why didn't you say something **before** it was 1:30?"

"Hm… how would **you** put this, Jiece? Uh… you never asked?"

"Oh you little-!" Jiece rushed forward to pounce on Aran, but stopped short as he smashed into an invisible barrier. Aran snapped his fingers and the barrier seemingly vanished, leaving Jiece to fall to the ground. Aran picked up a book and began to read. "Yeah… think twice next time you try that, alright?"

After finding that there was no food to be eaten, the group was devastated. Dieh went into an uncomfortable, hunger-filled sleep, while Jackson, Mina, and Jiece amused themselves by drawing on his sleeping form. Naru took the down-time to paint her nails and Rinn went to reading the Legend of Zelda. Aran was fumbling around groggily with his medicine pouch, and Trent was suspended in mid-air, hanging from a noose that wasn't working.

_Just let the insufferable hunger end!_ He shouted in his head. Still, the noose remained pointless and unusable. _Damn my awesomeness! It's the sole reason I can't die by conventional means… damn you physics! The **one** time I need you, you back out on me._

Finally Paris stood up. "We could… cook something ourselves, y-you know."

The noose snapped and Trent flopped to the ground, he raised a finger. "Ingenious!" Trent got up and ran over to his trunk, fumbling around for awhile before pulling out a rather large ham. "Ta-da!"

"Dude, why the hell do you have a freakin' **ham** in your trunk?" Jiece asked.

Trent twiddled his thumbs, "Well, I get hungry sometimes. And it's not freakin', it's honey glazed."

Ignoring the fact that Trent kept raw meat in his trunk, Rinn set to work. He put on some sterile gloves he had in his suitcase and snatched the ham. He brought it about two feet in front of him and breathed in deeply. "Breath of Fire!"

--

Astos rushed down the seemingly endless corridors at top speed, taking sharp turns to the left and right, nearly ramming the doors down, and flying across hallways. He finally came to the grand stone double-doors in the very back of the school, bordered with gold. He pushed them open, with all of his might, just enough to run into the large, open chamber. "Headmaster!" He shouted, still running towards the headmaster's desk at the end of the room. "Headmaster!" he called again, now catching his breath in front of the silver-haired monarch.

"Earth realm" pant "monster" pant "need a pardon…"

The headmaster stared down at Astos and smiled knowingly. "I already know of the breach in the earth realm, Astos, do not worry. Of course you can take your team to fix it; it **is** your assigned realm, after all. My only concern is that your advisees are being rushed around too much, with the tower of power on the second day, and now this?"

"But sir, I-!"

"Oh, don't worry, I'll still give you the pardon, I'm just saying. Just make sure they don't skip any classes for a while, for their sake, you hear?"

Astos saluted. "Yes sir!"

"Now then, we have about two days until the portals are prepared, Astos, so tell your team what they'll be doing while we wait… I just hope that the breach doesn't cause too much damage to earth before they're up."

"Two days, headmaster? Why are they not up yet?"

"Well we weren't expecting any breaches this early in the year, Astos, surely you understand."

Astos bowed to the headmaster. "Yes, sorry headmaster. I'll be leaving now." And he left the room.

--

**I am SO SORRY, everyone! Me + final exams + all night summer celebration party + plus lack of sleep laziness! I threw this one together at 2 AM, so gimme a break; I just didn't want you guys to think I died or something. **

**So, Mr. King is a freak-show and who knows what Astos and the headmaster are talking about? I guess you'll have to keep reading… **

**Seriously, though, I swear to god, now that summer is here, I'll try to focus more on writing more than I just was. Don't hate me! It's really due to lack of inspiration… I want to get onto writing these big awesome point in the story, but I have to have a few filler/explanation chapters first, and those are just totally uninspired… so it's hard. But then we get to the good stuff, so it's all good.**

**If you like to rant, don't raise your hand.**

**Today's rant: Nintendo Wi-Fi**

**--**

**Yeah, it's video game themed again, sue me. Anyway…**

**Mario Kart DS is the only good wi-fi title in exsistance right now, it doesn't really take a tremendous amount of skill, so everyone can play, and there aren't many ways of "being cheap" that I've encountered. **

**Tony Hawk's American Skateland with wi-fi was just kind of pointless… I skateboard with other people… woo.**

**And finally, Metroid prime: Hunters has a wi-fi mode. It SUCKS. EVERYONE is always the character "trace" because he has a sniper rifle move-thing. They pick him so they can one his KO people over and over again. I'm just over here as Weevil, trying to scavenge around for some health packs and BANG: HEADSHOT. **

**Son of a…**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	15. Burning Rivalries on All Sides

**As promised, chapter 15. Hopefully better than fourteen… I'm really, really sorry about fourteen… any-dang-way, let's see what's up with our heroes for the remaining hours of the day.**

Burning rivalries on all fronts.

"Guys, guys, guys!" Astos burst into the first-year Leonhart dorm, panting heavily. He settled himself, leaning on the door, and began to speak. "In two days, you guys are going on your first official mission!"

"Mission?"

Astos walked into the center of the room. "Yeah, you see… about one thousand years ago, warping technology was invented; I'm sure you all already know this."

There were a few weak nods of acknowledgement.

"Anyway, this was primarily used for transportation of consumer goods, then as a mode of transportation. A few hundred years later, mages finally figured out how to breach into other dimensions using warping spells… and after that, how to keep those portals open for extended periods of time.

"After much exploration of these other realms, we found many that were completely unprotected from…"

He was cut off as the class chime went off from the center of the school. Astos ran a hand through his hair and laughed hastily. "I'll tell you the rest after your classes today… if I'm not mistaken, you each have individual studies now… off to it!"

--

After lunch, the last two periods of the day are known as "individual studies." The second to last period is a "general class" session. For instance, magic class covers basic philosophy and use of magic, for all kinds of mages. Melee class is the exact same thing, only pertaining to anyone who uses physical combat.

After that is the last period of the day, a "specific class" session. This focuses on the specific class of the students. There is black mage class, white mage class, fighter class, bard class, summoner class, etc.

Rinn and Aran walked down to the school's courtyard, where magic class was held. Sitting directly across from them were Quayd and Eriq, much to their dismay. Quayd looked more passive than he had in team ethics class, calmly jotting down notes on the lecture of magical theory given by Mr. Bormir.

Eriq, on the other hand, was staring blankly at Aran constantly. Aran, though, was jotting down notes just as Quayd was. When Aran finally looked up, he instantly met Eriq's gaze and stared back. Eventually a voice came through into Aran's head.

_Are you just going to stare all day or say something?_

Aran recoiled slightly, taken aback by Eriq's voice in his mind. Regaining his composure, he caught the stare again. _How did you get here? My mind's defenses are nearly impenetrable to students on our level!_

Eriq chuckled silently and closed his eyes. _Well, well, Aran… you don't keep that calm attitude when you're outmatched, do you?_

His voiced still dripped with that inky blackness in his tone, slowly dampening Aran's thoughts… Aran snapped back to attention upon feeling a dull pain in the back of his mind. Instinctively, he blew back the feeling and faced Eriq again. _Get out of my memories, you filthy…_

_Oh, Aran, I don't **need** to dig at your memories… I know what happened to you, those nine years ago._

Aran gasped. How did he know about…? _How do you…_

_I know a lot more about **all** of you than you would suspect, Aran… You got lucky, didn't you? Nine years ago, you should have died… but you were lucky and survived..._

Aran was now using all of his mental force to push Eriq out of his head, holding back tears from painful memories. There was a long silence, but Aran could still feel Eriq firmly cemented in his mind. Finally he spoke, just barely above a whisper.

_But…I can't say the same for your mother… now can I?_

That tore it, Aran stood up immediately, fists clenched and voice hoarse. "That's enough!"

Everyone stared at Aran, completely silent. Regaining himself, Aran turned to a bewildered Mr. Bormir. "I'm sorry, sir… could I go to the infirmary? I… don't feel well."

Mr. Bormir just blinked a few times. "Y-yes, of course Aran. Go on."

--

Trent, meanwhile, was sitting happily on a bench in the training center. His class had been taking random pairs to spar, so the instructor could see the general skill levels of the students. Trent's name hadn't been picked out of the hat yet, but there were only three other students left, so his turn would be coming up soon.

"Sara and Trent, you're next."

Trent leapt off of the bench into the ring excitedly, pulling his leaf-blade sword from its bright red holster. He stepped out into the center circle of the ring, directly in front of Sara, he smiled happily. "May the best warrior win." And he held out his hand to shake, but it was brushed aside.

"I already know I will."

Right when the whistle blew, Sara immediately disappeared in a burst of red-tinted smoke. Trent held his sword at the ready, looking and stepping nervously from side to side. When the smoke cleared, Sara was still nowhere to be seen.

Trent let his sword tip fall to the ground and left his stance, confused. He looked around briefly and scratched his head. _Where'd she go off to…?_

Sara took the opportunity to drop down from her ceiling perch and landed right behind Trent, holding both blades to his throat. "This match was over quickly, huh?" And she sliced through.

Trent's limp form fell to the ground, bleeding from the neck and twitching. Sara casually sheathed her blades and began to walk off the ring. "Get him a white mage, I'm done with him." He laughed quietly to herself. _So much for the invincible Cedric family, _she thought to herself.

A hand on her shoulder caught Sara by surprise. She turned to find Trent standing there, still cheerful as ever, with a perfectly undamaged neck. "Aw, c'mon Sara." he tapped the side of his neck, "I have a 'steel skin' ability. You're going to have to do better than that."

She threw off his hand and rammed into him, blades already drawn. He stood still for a moment, two wakizashi dug into his stomach up to the hilt. His head went limp on her shoulder and there was a long moment of silence. Sara waited until she couldn't hear his breathing anymore and smirked. Trent lifted his head up quickly, "Sorry, still no good." He pushed her off of him and gripped his sword tightly, jumping high into the air, sword above his head. "Seven beat slash!"

He brought his sword down upon her as she put up a wakizashi in defense. The sword slammed into it, knocking her off balance. "One!" Trent used his spare momentum to spin 360 degrees around in mid-air, building up more momentum, and slashed at her broken defense. "Two!"

The smaller blade went flying at the force of Trent's sword. He spun again in mid-air to strike again, and Sara just barely had enough time to pull out her second blade. "Three!" The third slash broke through her hasty defense with ease, and he brought himself around again to slash the second blade away. "Four!"

Trent landed and continued his spinning assault, like a top. His fifth and sixth slash broke through her armguards, throwing her arms open and exposing the main target: the chest plate. "Five!" "Six!" Trent stepped forward while still retaining the spin effect and tilted his sword to send her flying with the flat of his blade.

"Seven: Eject!"

--

During class-specific periods at the end of the day, Aran was safe from Eriq, and Trent was away from Sara. But Rinn… Rinn still had to deal with Quayd.

"Now class, so I can get a basic grasp on your abilities, let's start with a basic level-rounding exercise. I want to see how long you can retain a basic fire spell in one hand without burning yourselves. Ready? Go."

Now, Mrs. Reina wasn't a particularly **violent** black magic instructor, that's just how black magic works…, with fireballs. Some students held it for about three seconds before letting out a yelp of pain. One in particular, a very small mage by the name of Zach, held it for a few seconds, then released it, though his glove caught on fire and continued to burn.

One by one, fireballs were dispersed into sparks and warmth, until only two were left, Quayd and Rinn. They were staring each other down intently, fires burning brightly. Rinn could feel the fire scorching his bare skin, but he held on. Surely Quayd was feeling the same, right? _Just a bit longer… just a bit longer…_ He kept telling himself as the burn began to crawl up his arm.

All eyes were on Rinn and Quayd. Rinn was struggling to fight the searing pain of flame while Quayd merely stood their, his burning gaze boring into Rinn and adding to the heat. Rinn was holding back a cry of agony when Quayd decided to end it.

He greatly increased the size of the flame until it was nearly the size of his whole chest, burning brightly and scorching the tips of his robes. Just to really rub it in, he increased the heat so that it burned a bright blue.

Rinn gave up and dispersed his fireball, defeated. Mrs. Reina came up to him and studied his arm. "Oh dear…" she said, "Rinn, you'd better go have that looked at, you should go to the infirmary immediately.

"Yes…" _OW! _"Ma'am."

--

Kadaj looked silently to the astronomy tower about a quarter mile away from him and his group. He turned to his brothers and began to pull on his gloves. "We're going there…"

Yazoo looked up from his picture of JENOVA and smiled. "Any particular reason, brother?"

"Yeah…" Kadaj said quietly, grabbing his double-sword and hopping on his motorcycle. "I'm bored."

--

Everything was going just dandy in the astronomy tower, it was Ted's birthday and many locals and co-workers had showed up for the party. Ted was a nice guy, people enjoyed his party.

"So Ted, how do you feel being another notch up the chord, eh?" said Bob.

"Well y'know Bob, it's just swell. I got two beautiful children, a loving wife, a nice house, and a great job. Life is just dandy for me right now."

"Well that's just swell, Ted, just swell."

"Swell it is, Bob."

Suddenly all the lights went out, leaving everyone in complete darkness. Cries of panic were heard from all around, and people were running about willy-nilly. Kadaj's voice rang out from the intercom system. "Settle down, everyone." He said in his soothing yet venomous voice. "I regret to inform you that you got in the way of me and my objective. And… I need some entertainment anyway…"

The intercom cut off and there was a moment of silence, everyone was completely confused. "Well, Ted, what do you think that wa- AAARRGGHH!"

"Bob! Bob! What's wrong, are you hurt! BOB!" A match was lit right in front of Ted, just barely in front of Ted's face, exposing Kadaj's now bloodstained face and chilling smirk. The match went out after a moment, and screams of agony and death were heard from all around.

That match was the last light anyone in that room saw.

--

**Well, that just about wraps things up, everyone. I really like how Trent and Aran's encounters with their "counter-parts" went, but for some reason, I didn't really like Rinn's… not sure.**

**Anyway, I hope this gives you some idea about a few things: **

**Astos' two-faced behavior.**

**Eriq's immense creepiness**

**Kadaj's immense evilness.**

**And that's really about it for now, see you guys soon!**

**--**

**R-A-N-T**

**Today's rant: Mac vs. Windows**

**Macintosh computers are somewhat of a minority in the computer world. They're efficient, sleek, and quality computing systems. Hell, they don't even get viruses that often! And why don't we all go out and buy Macs? Nobody cares about Macs.**

**Windows is more commonly used because of a few good reasons. It's not as confusing, it's not that expensive, easier to understand, and they can play a much larger range of games than Macs.**

**This is all fine and understood… and then, there are iPods.**


	16. Aran's secet, Astos' mission

**Well, I'm glad to see you all approve of the enemy match-ups, so I think I'll continue today with the aftermath… oh, and Astos gets to finish his explanation. Wee!**

Aran's secret, Astos' mission.

Rinn came back up to the dormitory with a bandaged arm and a cluttered head. _If I was able to beat Quayd in the tower, how did he smoke me this time? And…_ he paused briefly to recall the events of magic class. _What did Eriq to do Aran…?_

He stepped through the door to see Aran sitting on his bead with his robe's hood up, hiding his face. He sat completely motionless. After a while, Rinn noticed that his chest wasn't even moving an inch. _He's not breathing!_

"…Aran?"

Aran shot upright, his back to the wall. His arms were shaking and he was breathing heavily, holding a ritual knife in front of him in defense. He slowly lowered the knife when he realized he was "defending" himself against a very frightened Rinn. He dropped the knife and walked back over to sit on the end of his bed. "Sorry…"

Rinn pulled up a chair and put it in front of him, sitting down. "Aran, what did Eriq **do**?"

Aran seemed to be struggling to contain his emotions again. "He **knew** about me, Rinn… some bad things happened to me when I was young, he knew what had happened… no one was supposed to know…" he said, his voice just barely above a hoarse whisper.

"What… happened?"

Aran looked up at Rinn and smiled faintly. "I suppose you might as well know, then…" He stood up and took a deep breath. "But first…" He reached for his cap, retained the hand a few inches away for a moment or two, and then pulled it off. Rinn gasped, underneath the ever-mysterious white mage cap Aran had never taken off, were two milky white cat ears.

"You're… mithran?"

"Exactly."

"Well, why are you on the human continent, then? Doesn't that cost a lot of money to travel between continents? Wouldn't it be more convenient to…" he paused for a moment, "why were you hiding it?"

Aran sat back down, folded his arms, and sighed. "I'll explain from the beginning…"

"Towards the end of the last miasma, there was a specific elite group of demon soldiers known as 'The Red Spire'. The Red Spire was composed of twenty-one demons who each specialized in a different variety of military tactics. Three were sent to each continent, to gather information on that race's plans for defending themselves against the demons.

"Out of the three that were sent to the mithran continent, two were discovered and killed. New laws had been set to identify imposters. In accordance with those laws, all mithran males had to have three things by the age of 21: they had to own housing property, they had to have a job, and they had to have a wife.

"Two of the three demons never made it because they were ignorant, and had not bothered to gain these things. The third was smart, though… he disguised himself flawlessly as a 21 year old mithran male, and followed a single man home. When the man arrived at his home, he was immediately ambushed and killed by the demon when he walked inside.

"The demon stole his image, his thoughts, memories, and feelings. The demon had **become** the man. Upon absorbing his image and consciousness, the demon found he was to be wed to a mithran female the following day.

"They were wed and the demon kept his cover, he went to the murdered man's job every day, he now had a wife to pass as his own, and he owned a home… utilizing these traits, he was able to keep his cover for **seven years**...

"One year and four months after their marriage, the demon conceived a child with the woman… five years later; the demons attacked the mithran capital city, were the demon now lived. His mission now completed, he killed the woman before the child's eyes. Before he could kill his child, a team of militia warriors burst into the house to evacuate the building, so he had to retreat.

He paused for a second and faked a weak laugh. "If you haven't gotten it yet, I was that child."

"Yeah, I got it… so… why are you here?"

"Now knowing I was part-demon, the people of my homeland began to fear me, and I was shunned. I was sent to the human continent, where I was raised by priests. They tried their best to cure me of my demon heritage, but nothing could be done…" He reached for his thick shirt collar. "If you've ever wondered why I wear this thick collar, it's to hide this."

He pulled down his collar, revealing a tight metal band around his neck. Half was white, half was black, and Rinn could see it literally choking him. "Do you wear that… constantly?"

"I have to, Rinn. It was given to me by the priests who raised me. It keeps my demon side at bay, and weakens the rest of me as a side effect… but it's a small price to pay for not becoming… one of **them**. If I were ever to take off this band, I would probably go insane from pent-up dark energy… I could really hurt myself… or someone else.

"So, I now strive to become a great white mage, and I hope to one day find a cure to my horrible disease, so I try the best I can. I…"

"Dude! You're really powerful, even though you wear that band thingy?"

Rinn and Aran turned to find Trent sitting right next to them, eyes wide in interest at Aran's story. Aran immediately, if not automatically, retaliated. "Trent! Don't you know how to knock?"

"I live here too… why don't you yell at any of the others?"

Aran and Rinn looked around the room. Sure enough, everyone was in the dorm, Mina, Dieh, Jackson, Astos, Paris… everyone! "How long have you all been here!"

Mina looked up from a magazine she was reading. "Pretty much the whole time, Aran."

Aran looked sheepishly at the ground and scratched his head. "Heh, well I guess you all know then…It saves me the time of explaining it later."

"Yup."

"Uh huh."

"Looks like it."

"On a lighter note…" Jackson started, "how about we let Astos finish his explanation, hm?"

"Excellent idea, Jackson," said Astos, reaching into a cabinet for something and throwing it towards Jackson. "You get a cookie." Jackson immediately pounced on it, still flying through the air.

"Mine!"

"So… where was I before the bell rang, exactly…?"

"Something about other realms being unprotected from something." Said Jackson, looking up from his cookie murder."

"Ah, right. So, many realms were completely unprotected from random encounters and monsters… hell, some were in complete chaos due to some of them. So, our realm being completely capable of kicking some serious monster butt, we step in to help every once in a while. Hundreds of years ago, we cleaned up everything… every now and then there is a breach from the monster realm into one of the other realms, so we come back to stop it.

"The hero academy signed an agreement with the high council of Graphia to take responsibility for a good few of these realms, to lessen the burden on average civilians in Graphia. One realm is assigned to each year-class of each dorm. Whenever there is a monster breach, that class will go to take care of it, and that's us!"

Aran interrupted him. "So when you said mission, you meant…"

"We're going to a different realm to take care of some monsters, yeah. Our assigned realm is called "earth", and it's a mostly human-populated planet, so we shouldn't have much problem blending in."

There was a long silence, everyone staring at Astos. He laughed, "aaand… that's it!"

Another silence, until there came a group shouting of: "Awesome!"

"Only two days! This is gonna be sweet!"

"We get to see an entirely different culture!"

"What should I pack!"

"Are there any hot girls there?"

And yes, everyone was greatly excited at this new prospect. The ecstatic buzz hung around for a few hours, then wore off as everyone went about there normal activities again. After a while, Astos came up to Aran.

"Hey Aran, what was that demon's name, anyway?"

Aran once again took on his darkened expression, silent for a time. Clenching his fists in hate towards his father, he reluctantly spoke. "His name was… Yazoo."

--

**Meanwhile**

--

Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz sat around a warm fire at an inn. All was quiet for a long while, the three enjoying the warmth. Yazoo sneezed.

"Bless you," said Loz.

Kadaj turned to face his younger brother. "You know, Yazoo, demons only sneeze if someone's talking about them. You think the Hero Academy knows we're coming?"

Yazoo just smirked. "If they do, it'll be all the more fun to destroy… right brother?"

--

**And so there you have it, Aran's back story. I like how it turned out, but I didn't really enjoy turning over the mood so easily to Astos… but I was running out of space in order to keep an average chapter length soooo… yeah.**

**Going to the Bahamas on Friday (today is Wednesday), so I won't have anything up for a week… but I'll see if I can't put up some witty short-stories that I just can't seem to fit into the main story ark tomorrow. These will just be short, funny little situations and happenings with the characters… I've been wanting to do one of these, so don't ruin my fun. **

**Anyway, I started my summer job yesterday working with a landscaping crew: "Jones-Johnson and Lee." Been spending the mornings and afternoons shoveling dirt and planting trees… fun times. I hate my life…**

**Cheers, Jiece.**

**--a whole new rant… a new fantastic point of view, no one to tell us no, or where to go, or say we're only dreaming. A whole new raaant, with new horizons to pursue… cuz when I'm way up here, it's crystal clear… that now I'm in a whole new rant with you…**

**--**

**(Replace the word "rant" with world, and you get lyrics to an Aladdin song! Disney classic, booyah!)**

**Today's rant: Celebrities**

**Ashley Simpson: THINKS she's individual… HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Ben Affleck: Has been with so many different women, he's is considered the world's first (official) celebrity man-whore.**

**Jennifer Garner: Had a baby… Yay for her. Yet, EVERY magazine thinks they should make a million-page article about it.**

**Orlando Bloom: Men wanna be him; women think they can change him. Unfortunately… this is all completely true… he's too popular for his own good.**

**Britney Spears: WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT HER! WAKE UP, YOU FREAKING IDIOT, YOUR TIME IS OVER! NO ONE CARES ABOUT HOW YOU MARRIED YOUR BACKUP DANCER! Expletive OFF!**

**Johnny Depp: Is quite possibly the only one that doesn't try to hog all the cameras. You see, Johnny-boy over there has a little something that we like to call: COMMON SENSE. Obviously if you're a star and you go to starbucks for a decaf mocha latte thing, you gonna get FAN'd… but not Johnny, oh no… he's intelligent.**

**Will Avery: Is the writer of Hero Academy, and he thinks his readers are the BEST! If anyone wants to tell him how to work the "user profile" thing on feel free to tell him via e-mail! **


	17. Will is lazy day, number one

**Going on vacation tomorrow; so today, I've got a little something special planned. There are funny little situations and tidbits in Hero Academy that I won't be able to put in the final copies. So, I'll be putting them here… also, I'll be putting in some new ones. Short little bits of HA goodness, featuring the antics of everyone's favorite buffoons: Jiece and Trent! (Also the rest of the gang at points.)**

"Will is lazy" Day. #1

_Skit number one: "Hell hath no fury like… Mina."_

_-Time: few months into 1st year, 12:10PM_

_-Setting: Mina and Jiece weren't hungry, so didn't go to lunch. They're alone in the dorm._

--

Jiece was bored… oh so very bored. In fact, having no one around but Mina was a lot more boring than he imagined. _Man, I need to do something before I explode of boredom... _Jiece was lying down on his bed, thinking for a few minutes about what to do. His two interests were girls and music, and he didn't feel like playing his lute at the moment, so…

He sat up and saw Mina doing some last-minute homework. _Perfect._ "Hey, Mina, you know what time it is?"

Mina looked up from her papers and held up her wrist-time glyph (equivalent to a watch). "Yeah, it's 12:13."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure it's topless make-out o'clock."

"Wha?"

"Yeah, it's a universal thing. At exactly 12:13, all hot people in the room have to take off their shirts and make out with another hot person. And since me and you are the only ones in the room…" he raised his eyebrows suggestively.

There was a short pause. "Yeah, sounds great." She walked over to Jiece and brought her face close to his, eyes seductively half-closed. "Close your eyes…" she said softly. He did so and soon hurt the rustling of cloth.

_Dude, she's totally gonna take it off! This was my greatest idea ever!_

"Alright, you can open them now…"

Jiece opened his eyes hopefully, only to find her fist drawn pack, equipped with a heavy gauntlet, complete with studded knuckles.

_Help…_

--5 minutes of brutal beatings later…

Everyone had surrounded Mina. Rinn stepped forward. "Mina, why is that gauntlet you're wearing all bloody and why is Jiece tied to the ceiling with barbed wire?"

Not looking up from her homework, Mina responded. "Oh, uh… he did that to himself. I wasn't here to see, I was busy beating up womanizing bastards."

Amidst all this, no one a meek cry come from the ceiling. "Ow…"

_Skit number two: Fight club._

_-Time: Month into school year, 5:02PM_

_-Setting: Rinn is reading, Trent is Trent-ing._

--

Trent was poking Rinn repeatedly to get his attention. "Hey Rinn, hey Rinn, hey Rinn, hey Rinn, hey Rinn."

Finally his resistance broke. "Oh my god, **what**!"

"I was thinking we should try joining a school club again!"

"Dude, do you remember **what happened** last time we joined a club?"

--_Flash back…_

"Rule number one of fight club: nobody speaks of fight club."

Trent turned to Rinn as the leader of fight club went over the rules. "See? This guy knows what he's doing."

"Rule number two of fight club: NOBODY speaks of fight club."

--12 minutes later…

"Rule number thirty-seven of fight club: no Buddhists!"

"**What the hell, MAN! You just keep on bleeping go on with the god-bleep rules! Shut the bleep up!"**

All eyes were on the now-furious Rinn. Trent leant over towards him. "We run now?"

"Yeah, run."

_Skit number three: The sniper._

_-Time: Undecided at this point_

_-Setting: Dieh and Jackson are the last ones on their team during a training session in the stadium; they're hiding behind a large piece of stone rubble, the only thing protecting them from an archer on a high perch behind them._

"Man, we're getting our asses handed to us out here… that archer is good." Dieh said, panting.

"Oh come on, she's not **that** good." He exposed a bit of his staff from behind the wall, immediately an arrow shot out and pinned it to the ground. "Holy fuji!"

"Don't worry, we just have to make it to the checkpoint and then we're good, we'll just make a mad dash over there and we're safe," said Dieh, retreating back behind the rubble after he'd tried to look over the edge.

_Screw that._ Thought Jackson, "I just have to check something first…"

"What?"

Jackson faced Dieh and put his arms back.

**PUSH**

"Blargh!" Dieh was immediately hit by several arrows.

"Yeah… sorry, but I'm happy stayin' riiiight here."

_Skit number four: The return of shirtless o'clock. (Hypocritical disclaimer: this joke belongs to Matt Boyd, of "Mac hall". Matt, I love ya and your comic, so don't sue… the joke HAD to be done. Thanks.)_

_-Time: shortly after skit number 1_

_-Setting: Trent and Mina are watching TV (how they get one? Explained later…) and Jiece walks pay, in the mood for a laugh. Trent starts off their rehearsed scam._

"Hey, Jiece, what time is it?"

"Shirtless o'clock."

"Yeah, thought so." Jiece and Trent both took off their shirts.

"Hey, Mina, it's-"

"No."

"But it-"

"Nope."

"Shirtless-"

"Nada."

"O'clock-"

"No, nope, no hope, get lost, no, nope, hell no, no, nada, nyet, nein, no."

"…aw..."

_Skit number five: The pumpkin of doom._

_-Time: Halloween_

_-Setting: Mina is teaching Trent how to carve a pumpkin._

"Alright, this design is pretty simple, so pay attention and you can master it in no time."

"Alright."

"So you just take your knife here, and you cut two triangles over here for the eyes…"

"Go on."

"Then you make a triangle or square _here_ for the nose…"

"Mm-hmm."

"Then make a kind of boat-like shape with some indents for the mouth with teeth, and you're done!"

"Sweet."

Mina put down her knife. "All right, now you try."

"Gotcha." Trent threw his knife over his shoulder, nearly stabbing Dieh, and pulled out his broadsword. "Here we go!"

"Trent, no WAIT-"

**SPLORT**

There was a moment of silence between Trent, Mina, and the pumpkin mush. Mina spit out a pumpkin seed and glared at Trent, who merely pointed at it, terrified.

"Mine's lookin' at me funny!"

_Skit number six: A conveniently placed idiot._

_-Time: Beginning of second semester_

_-Setting: Dieh, who recently changed his class to NO SPOILERS FOR YOU, walks into the room, tired._

"Whoo, I'm beat… Trent, put this away for me, will ya?" He threw his wrench over to Trent, who immediately grabbed it.

"Hot potato!" He threw the wrench back at top speed.

**WHACK!**

It smacked Jackson in the chest. "Ow! Ow, Jesus… what was that for!" And threw it over to Trent, missed, and hit Mina in the arm.

**BASH!**

"Aug! Son of a…" she threw it towards the doorway, where Jackson was standing, he ducked and it smacked Rinn in the face, who immediately recovered in fury and threw it at Trent.

Trent grabbed it again. "Hot potato!" and threw it.

"No!" everyone collectively shouted. Dieh, who noticed none of this, turned.

"Wha?"

**THOK!**

**CRASH!**

Dieh stumbled backwards out of an open window and fell to a ledge seven floors below. There was a disturbingly long, worried silence; broken by: "Don't you guys love this game?"

Everyone stared at Trent, annoyed. "What?"

--

**And so there you go, a few examples of our heroes' antics… what did Dieh change his class to? Why do many with Trent also include Mina? Why do many of you probably not get the one about fight club? (Because you didn't see the movie!) You'll have to keep reading to find out! **

**I'll be on vacation for the next many days… if I can convince my friend "monkey36" to bring his laptop on the trip, the updating process won't be halted. If it is, be patient and let me enjoy myself!**

**Cheers, Jiece.**

**-No rant today, rants only for official chapters… this is just filler.**


	18. Dire Condition, part 1

**I'm back from the Bahamas, woo! I'm tired, agitated, and sunburned… perfect conditions for writing! (Not.) Really though, I feel I owe it to you all for some speedy updates, so here comes some awesome battle action in a quick MULTI-PART SESSION!**

**Dire Condition, part 1.**

**THUMP!**

Rinn fell on his hands and knees, panting, just having narrowly dodged the thick, leathery claw of the great flaming beast before him. He looked up into its burning face, steam pouring from its nostrils and great flaming mane shining in the late afternoon sun.

It stared back at Rinn, emotionless, and got back down onto its hands and feet, hunched over like a gorilla, ready to strike once more. It reared back on its legs and brought its thick arms back to the ground, crushing Rinn into the ground. Now buried into the sand, pinned down by a demon of fire, he sighed and called out to Jackson.

"All right, I submit! Call him off!"

"Ifrit, disperse!" And the demon of fire vanished into a wall of flame. Jackson came over and helped Rinn up. "Alright, well, you lost. You owe me fifty gil."

Rinn pulled a cookie from his pocket and threw it a few feet away. "Have a cookie and we'll call it even?"

"Like I'm going to go for that twice."

"…It's chocolate chip."

Jackson once more lunged through the air for the confectionary treat. "Mine!"

"Rinn!" Rinn looked towards the forest behind the greenhouse to see Aran walking towards him. "I set up a few targets over near the lake for practice. Get Trent and meet me over there."

"Right."

Rinn began to walk towards the front of the greenhouse, the team's unofficial hang-out spot. Sure enough, all Leonhart first-years were lounging around, going about their assorted business. _Right where I left you._ "Hey Trent!" Rinn called out, "we got some targets set up over at the lake for team maneuver practice, come on over!"

"Righty-oh."

Trent got up from his bed of grass and began to walk over towards Rinn, temporarily stopped by Jiece. From Rinn's point of view, he couldn't hear anything they were saying. Finally Trent gave a short wave goodbye and ran over to Rinn.

"All right, ready… oh, and Jiece says to remind you that your hat is still on fire."

"Wha? AHH!"

--

The three heroes sat silently around the target dummies near the Academy's lake; Aran leaning on a tree, Rinn sitting on a rock, and Trent hanging upside-down from a tree branch. Rinn spoke first. "Well, I'm drawing a blank."

"Same… why is it so dang hard to think of a few moves…"

"Not a clue." Said Rinn, sighing.

"Maybe," started Trent, "if we just kinda… think of all the things we're best at… and, like… put them together, or something."

Trent's idea was as good as any, so they decided to try it. Rinn, specializing in fire-based skills, suggest a nice fire buff to Trent's melee attacks. Aran, specializing in healing, pointed out that he could not contribute to that maneuver.

"Oh… right… my bad."

After a few long hours of conversing, a few ideas were thought up. The first was tried immediately. Rinn used a fire burst as propulsion to lift him and Trent high into the air, at the peak of the fifty-foot jump, Aran tried his hand at using a weapon buff. "Holy blade!" and Trent's sword began to glow a bright blue-white. Rinn then grabbed Trent by the collar and belt, tossing him speedily back towards the ground, Trent's sword at the ready. This attempt was thwarted by Trent's marvelous ability to land on his face… painfully. He lifted a finger to make a point and spoke muffled, his entire head buried in skid-induced dirt.

"I vote we **don't** try that again."

--

Many other attempts were made… "The flaming swordsman", for example…

**FWOOSH!**

"By the gods, **it BURNS!**"

--

"The flying swordsman" was tried too… and ended…

**TOSS!**

"AAAHHHH!"

**THUMP!**

…With Trent's head in a tree's knot-hole.

--

And many other valiant efforts were made to achieve their goal, but none to any avail. The sky began to darken, as dusk neared. Rinn was nearly on the verge of exploding.

"Damnit, damnit, damnit!" he shouted in anger, stomping around. "We've been at it all day!" His left hand began to glow a bright red. "Why can't we…!" He threw a searing fireball into the woods and sighed. "Alright, I feel better now."

"Reflect!" Aran shouted out. Immediately a reflexive barrier formed in front of the tree the fireball was about to incinerate, bouncing the fireball down into the lake next to it. He looked to Rinn and gave him a mock-disapproving look. "Don't start forest fires just because we were unsuccessful, Rinn. Surely you don't want any treants after you?"

Just before they left for the academy, Aran noticed something. "Rinn, was that a particularly **potent** fireball you had cast?"

"Not really, why?"

"Because the lake is boiling…" he responded. Indeed it was, large masses of bubbles were surfacing and popping as they reached the surface of the lake water. Trent was already gone, so Rinn and Aran walked over.

"That's really odd… it wasn't even that hot… but to keep it boiling for ten minutes?"

Suddenly a great yellow-brown tentacle leapt from the lake, water spraying in all directions, flailing about. Aran ducked, Rinn jumped, both narrowly avoided a broad sweep of the giant tentacle. Deceiving its size, it turned quickly and smashed aside like a fly.

"What the-!"

**THOK!**

He clutched his head in pain, warm blood slowly making its way down the side of his face. Suddenly the noise stopped, and Rinn looked up. The water had stopped bubbling, and the tentacle had vanished… as had Aran.

"Aran!" Rinn ran franticly back to the water's edge, looking into the lake for a sign of Aran. He turned hastily in all directions to see if he might have been batted aside as well, but he found nothing.

--

10 minutes later…

--

All of the first year Leonharts, Astos, and Verikk were gathered around the lake's edge, searching frantically for any sign of their white mage. Jackson and Dieh had taken to the skies with their summons, and Naru was phasing in and out of the forestry for clues. No one could find anything, until everyone noticed Astos sitting very still, dumbfounded, in front of a small shrub near the lake; everyone gathered around.

"Astos, what…" but anyone who spoke was instantly silenced when they saw what lay in the shrubbery. No one moved; no one spoke… all that was left was thoughts. Thoughts of death, pain, and what doom awaited Aran. In a great leap of courage, Astos picked up the object and held it p for it to be seen more clearly, cementing the morbid thoughts of everyone around it.

What Astos held in his hand, was the small, black and white metal demon-guard band that Aran wore around his neck. For a long while no one knew what to say, until Verikk broke the silence.

"I've got to go now, and fast." He walked quickly towards the edge of the lake and began to remove any unnecessary clothing, preparing to dive into the water. "Alucard must be stopped… if I don't come back in ten minutes, get Gana or the headmaster, and quickly!"

--

**Well, there it is… a bit late, I know, but it's got a nice cliffhanger. Prepare yourselves to meet the ferocity of Aran's demon form: Alucard! And also, the tentacle was a Kraken, the "boiling" was it's breathing creating bubbles before it surfaced, and it was Rinn's fireball that disturbed it, for those of you who are confused.**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	19. Dire Condition, part 2

**No news today… just enjoy.**

**DISCLAIMER: Do not read this chapter if you can't read scenes of gore, intense combat, gothic-ness, or people getting the living hell beaten out of them… **

Dire Condition, part 2: Today, we spell doom: V-E-R-I-K-K.

"Use this to keep in touch." Astos threw a linkpearl to Verikk, who caught it and nodded solemnly. Turning, he drew in a deep breath and swam-dove into the murky lake. As the ripples subsided, the tension in the air was heavy. The team waited by Astos' linkpearl, set to speaker, for a sign that Verikk made it.

Beneath the surface, Verikk delved deeper and deeper into the dark water, his only light being the natural glow of its inhabitants. Being mithran, Verikk could see better in darkness, and was able to see a great tentacled beast swimming hurriedly towards the bottom. _Another Kraken!_ He pointed himself towards the Kraken and put his arms parallel to his body, palms behind him.

_Watera! _He shouted the spell in his mind, and two great, short streams of water burst from his hands, rocketing Verikk forward. Once the jets stopped he was in clear view of the Kraken, swimming for his life towards its destination. Suddenly it swept upwards and disappeared.

Verikk swam backwards a bit to behold a shocking discovery: there was a hole in a large rock formation just in front of him. He felt the warmth emitting from the opening, _there must be a giant air bubble inside of it…_ Lungs beginning to give way, Verikk hastily swam up through the upwards tunnel. He could see the light at the top, but it was too far! He would never make it in time.

_Watera!_ He inwardly called again, propelling him through the top and many feet into the air. He landed back into the water with a splash and quickly recovered, looking around.

The underwater air bubble was sealed in by solid stone, appearing jaggedly all over the walls. The room Verikk had surfaced in was dome-shaped, normal rock in the middle with a broad moat surrounding the circular chunk of rock surface. Upon swimming through the moat a little ways, Verikk found it to be quite deep, a rest haven for Krakens of the lake. Suddenly he felt something rubbery drift past his foot underwater. He looked down to find the Kraken he had follow, dead, with one long, deep gash going straight down its middle.

_Oh my…_

"Verikk! Did you make it to Aran?" the linkpearl bellowed into his ear, in Astos' voice.

"Yes, Astos… I think I'm in the right place… there is some kind of hollow mountain under the lake, where Krakens go to rest, I presume… I followed one here."

"So you think the Kraken took Aran into the cave?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure… one just floated by me, nearly cleaved in half."

There was a long silence from the other line. "So then he already has a soul?"

"More than one, I believe… I have to act quickly before it is too late."

"Right, contact me when you find more."

"Right."

Verikk stepped onto the circular platform of rock from the moat; he could here the dead kraken flop back down the hole. There was a downward path leading from the platform to a deeper airtight chamber, and another. Finally Verikk came to the third chamber, very deep under the water and beginning to get very hot and dark. He could just barely see a hallway to his right, and he took it. _Nightvision._

Verikk's feline eyes kicked in, granting him sight in the darkness of the thin hallway. Remembering the multiple mutilated kraken bodies he had found before reaching this point, he could only fear the worst was to come. Cave dwelling insects were pinned, headless and dead, to the walls with their own legs, and blood was drawn in lines along the walls. Verikk tapped the linkpearl to open the link.

"Astos, it's worse than I expected, there are dead bodies of many creatures down here… he must have at least 30 souls by now."

There was a disturbingly long silence. "Verikk… you should come back with reinforcements… you won't be able to beat him."

"Astos, if I don't go now, he'll grow even more powerful than now… more powerful than the headmaster, even."

"…Just hold him off for as long as you can, we're getting help now."

"Good, will do."

Finally a light breached the darkness. Verikk approached the end of the hallway carefully; just barely moving inch by inch… he felt something tap against his foot, and saw Aran's white mage robes on the floor, bloodied in several areas. Verikk swallowed and continued, until he finally had reached the end.

This room looked exactly like the first, completely circular with a circular rock platform in the center and a deep, surrounding moat. The key difference here, though, is that the moat was nearly 70 yards beneath him, and the circular stone platform was actually a giant stone pillar protruding from the ground far below. All around the walls in the perfectly cylindrical room were giant lanterns, each nearly the size of a cottage, burning brightly in white hot intensity, casting enough light to be mistaken for daylight.

In the center of the giant pillar, there was a hunched figure slumped over the bleeding, twitching body of another kraken. The figure began to speak, a cold and emotionless voice echoed around the giant room, adding a frighteningly intimidating effect to the sound.

"There… that should just about do it…" the frozen voice trailed off, it was perfectly loud, though sounded like a whisper… The figure stood up and turned to face Verikk.

"What do you think, Verikk?" He spread his arms to reveal his attire, formerly hidden by his cape. Verikk merely held his silence and ground so as not to anger the demon, stalling for as much time as possible.

"As I'm sure you know, mithrans are trained well in bonecrafting… I decided to put it to… good use."

Indeed he had. Aran's robes had been completely replaced with fashion of a more macabre taste. The tunic, formerly made of cloth, had been replaced by the open rip cage of a smaller kraken, bits of the kraken's flesh still hung from the sharpened bone. The pants had been replaced by the woven hides of the insects Verikk had seen earlier, topped off with shin-guards made from the rock-solid carapace of said insects.

The same had been done with the sleeves, though the armguards had been made from another form of bone found within the helpless krakens that had been slain by him. Shoulder guards made from roughly dulled kraken beaks, the whole suit held together by ravenously bent insect legs digging into the bone or hide, no doubt digging into Aran's skin, as well.

Most horrifyingly, though, was the cap. Previously made from thick leather and metal, it was now a near-exact replica made from insect hides and bone. Mounted in the center-front of the caps surrounding was the heart of one of the slain creatures, still connected to its arteries.

With another look, Verikk saw that the arteries of the poor creature's heart were connected to various other parts of the armor, pumping blood through them. _The armor… is alive!_

Again a silence.

"Stalling for backup, I presume… how typical of you… though I put know blame to you… after all, I'll surely kill you… though, still… you could at least say hello to an old friend."

"I have **nothing** to say to you, Alucard!" Verikk snapped back.

"Ooh… testy, I see. Still angry about your wife, I presume?"

With that Verikk rushed forward, katana drawn, and slashed at Alucard, who vanished the instant before it hit, reappearing three feet in the air behind Verikk, and thrust-kicked him in the back of the neck; sending him flying to the edge of the rock.

"You should be satisfied that I died before, Verikk… I would think that would be revenge enough…" He lowered his head slightly. His dark grey-and-black hair framed his face awkwardly, giving him the appearance of having a very thin face, almost like a skeleton. "But then I got reincarnated into this little boy… I just **love** the laws of demon reincarnation, don't you, Verikk?"

He chuckled eerily to himself, and then reached into his insect-hide cloak to draw a long, white sword. "The Kraken's spinal cord is a very interesting bone, you know… when pumped with enough darkness, I can make it hard and straight…" he did so, "like a sword. Other times I can make it lax…" he did so again, the cord sagging to the ground, "to make somewhat of a whip… And, Verikk, it is with necromancy, the power you loathe so much…" he straightened the sword again, "that I will slay you with."

Verikk stood up and wiped away some blood from his busted lip. _Even though Alucard has done me wrong many times in the past… I can't lose my grip. Stay strong, Verikk… Just hold out for reinforcements…_

"Right then…" he spat to the side, readying his katana. "Bring it."

--

**I warned you, guys… this Alucard guy is one seriously messed up freakshow… it's not getting any less gory in the rest of the multi-part, so… yeah… just warning you.**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	20. Dire Condition, part 3

**Same thing as last time, just read last chapter's disclaimer and you're good.**

Dire Condition, part 3: Fight for your life!

Needing no further words of encouragement, Alucard lashed forward at top speed with a splitting blade strike to Verikk's chest, which he parried easily. _Take this!_ Verikk threw Alucard's balance off and stabbed him in the neck.

There was a brief moment of silence and no movement, until Alucard smirked.

Alucard twisted around, taking Verikk's katana with him, and pulled it out, still smirking. "Come now, good friend, you can do better than that…" He threw the katana at Verikk's feet, laughing. Verikk grabbed it and hastily ran to him again, disappearing before contact and reappearing behind Alucard, ready for a downward slash.

"Too slow again…" an icy whisper came from behind him as he cut through the mirage's arm in front of him. Verikk brought the strike completely around to strike the real Alucard behind him just in time to block his attack. The now armless mirage he had cut first spoke. "You had it right the first time!" He screeched as he bit hard into Verikk's collar bone.

"AAUUGH!"

Alucard pushed downward on Verikk's shoulders with his free hand and stump of an arm, and then pulled up with his bite to dislocate the bone. The accomplishment of this task was met with a horrible cracking sound. Alucard let Verikk's collar bone go and picked up his severed arm and held it to the stump of it, immediately bonding the two back together. "Now Verikk, I've seen you live through worse!" He began his cold laugh again as he picked up his sword. "Now get up."

Verikk just barely got up to his knees, leaning on one elbow while he took a hand to his dislocated bones. "Cura," and it was fixed. He stumbled back up, collar area still in pain, and picked up his katana. _It's a quick fix, but good enough for now…_

"Losing your touch I see, Alucard… normally you would have made a killing blow by now… getting weak?" He managed to blurt out, battered.

Instead of getting angry, Alucard merely laughed. "Don't try playing my game, Verikk… you're too nice to say anything _truly_ effective in that manner…" he sighed in mock-sorrow, "yes, Verikk, if only they had known you were so nice before they **abandoned you**!"

"You little!" Verikk lashed forward with his sword breaking the wind at his side. He rocketed into the air and readied to bring it down with earth-shattering force. "Fifteen beat slash!" he called out at peak height. After just a moment hanging in the air, Verikk came back down towards Alucard at top speed, spinning, his sword braced for impact. "One!"

But one strike was all it took, the blade was about to slice Alucard's head clean off, but **just** as it was about to start with his ear, it stopped. There was a long silence; Verikk still in mid-attack position, Alucard with his sword point blocking the attack. _How can he block with just the **point** of that thing!_

"Now then…" his frosty voice slithered its way into Verikk's ears. He thrust his arm forward and his sword tip went **through** the flat of Verikk's blade. Alucard gave a trademark smirk and flipped backwards, breaking off the top half of Verikk's sword. He continued his backward rotation until he was standing on his hands, and kicked upwards into Verikk's chest, sending him flying upwards.

Before Verikk reached peak height, Alucard appeared behind him and grabbed his ankle, doing a 540 degree spin in mid-air and hurling him towards the wall. He appeared again with his feet on the wall, he kicked off and heat-butted Verikk back to the throwing point. Appearing again above Verikk's now limp and bleeding form, Alucard front-flip kicked him back down to the ground, hurtling at top speed.

Finally Alucard appeared once more on the rock below him and ripped his kraken spine down the middle, straightening both of the now-thinner blades, he yowled out in a combination of thrill, insanity, and amusement: "Now feel true pain, Verikk! Double sword 200-beat slashes!"

--

Naru and Jackson came bounding back to the lake from the academy, Gana hot on their heels. When they reached the edge, he immediately went into action. "Astos! How long has Verikk been down there?"

"About 20 minutes, Gana. He found a hollow mountain under the lake, Alucard is there and they're fighting right now."

Gana stared at him in disbelief. "…Alucard?"

"Yes sir, he's back."

Gana contemplated this for a moment, rubbing his temples in frustration. Silence overtook the lake as all eyes were focused on the motionless man, breathing heavily. Finally he looked up, facing the lake, and began to strut commandingly towards it. "I'm going down there, **now**. Any of you can accompany me if you wish; your aid will be useful in overwhelming this demon. Though I'm not going to lie to you, you will most likely be hurt, or killed. Come if you wish it, I will not stop or force you."

There was no response when he had reached the lake's edge. _I don't blame them._ Gana took in a deep breath and readied himself for a dive.

"I'll go."

Gana looked back to see Rinn standing just behind him, head held high and staff in hand. "It's my fault that Alucard is here in the first place, and I want to help stop him." Everyone was staring at Rinn in silence, still holding his ground proudly, completely sure of what he was about to risk; Gana could see it in his eyes. Gana stepped towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Very well, Mr. Orunitia, I can see you know what you must do."

Rinn nodded surely. Astos stepped out in protest, shocked by Rinn's obviously suicidal proposal. "Gana, if Rinn goes in there with you and Verikk, he will be most likely to die!" There was a grim silence that hung in the air. Astos raised his voice considerably and pressed on. "You will die, too, Gana! You will die as well!"

Gana tried to remain in a calm, stern tone. "Astos, Mr. Orunitia made this choice on his own, I said I wouldn't stop anyone and I have no intention of-"

"I don't want to hear it, Gana!" Astos cried out, on the verge of tears, "you know as well as I that you cannot let Rinn just throw his life away like tha-!"

"Damnit, Astos!" Gana was now yelling, "Because Verikk did the same thing when you two were young doesn't mean that the same results will be produced! Neigh, you should be proud of Rinn for having the same heart of courage and soul that Verikk did on that day!"

A large gust passed by, shaking the branches of trees and rippling the water of the lake. The brooding silence that hung between the lot of them held for what seemed like days, Astos staring angrily at Gana, eyes watering; Gana staring intently back. At last, Astos hung his head and began to speak again, softly…

"Verikk was barely pulled back from the brink of death that day, Gana… we had almost lost him… all of us…" Gana's expression loosened at this, Astos raised his head once more, a look of fierce determination now locked onto him. "I do not want anyone here to go through what we all went through when losing Verikk...

"I will do my best to prevent such a thing from happening again… I vowed that to myself long ago… therefore…" Everyone held their breath as Astos hung around his last words. "I'm coming with you."

"I'm coming to!" Trent announced triumphantly. "I'm not letting Aran **or** Rinn hurt themselves!"

"The hell I'm letting Trent throw himself away like that, he owes me 60 gil!" Jiece stepped forward, brushing back his hair with a trademark smile.

"If Jiece goes, I'm going as well." Naru walked up behind Jiece, wrapping her arms around him from behind, resting her head on his shoulder. "He's too cute to let go so easily." Jiece merely turned his head the other way and laughed.

"And we women stay together!" Mina pulled out her dual buckler shields with authority. "Right, Paris?"

"Right! I-I'm coming to!"

"What the hell, I'll pitch in also." Jackson said, pulling out his greatstaff.

"Being as how you guys aren't really giving me a choice, count me in!" Dieh shouted his final words, raising his staff to the sky.

--

Verikk fell to the ground again, blood pouring freely from his gaping wounds. He tried to move his arms, but found it useless; the spinal whip had tied itself firmly around his upper body, making his arms and torso immovable. Alucard squatted down and leaned in towards Verikk. "Now let's see if I remember how to take control of another's body…" after seeing the horrified look on the instructor's face, Alucard cackled maniacally. "Fear not, good friend, it will only hurt **a lot**!"

He stood back up and began to control the whip, its razor-sharp point now rising and falling as if it had a life of its own. The spinal whip, most of it still firmly binding Verikk, plunged its razor tip into Verikk's neck.

"AARRRHH!"

"Oh, clumsy me, I missed your spinal nerve…" he waved his hand upwards and the whip's point pulled itself out of Verikk's neck and dove into it again, more near the nape of the neck this time.

"GRRAAAH!"

Alucard chuckled icily to himself and pulled the point out again, he raised his hands and flittered the fingers around for a bit. "Sorry, butterfingers… now this one won't miss!" The point reared up as high as its length would allow and prepared to burrow itself deep into Verikk's spinal nerve. Just as it was about to make its move a lightning fast bolt of energy slammed into it, breaking off the top section and loosening the rest of it as a result; Verikk burst free quickly and jumped back, looking to where the bolt came from.

Rinn stood on a loose rock towards the higher part of the dome, hand smoking from the recent thunder spell. Behind him, Trent leapt off the jutting edge into the center of the stone where Alucard was. He merely laughed.

"You'll kill yourself from that height, you idiot!"

Alucard jumped out of the way of Trent's downward stab and chuckled in amusement as his sword stuck itself deep into the rock; surely he wouldn't be able to pull it out. Trent looked up to him and smiled. "Wasn't aiming for ya!"

"Wha- OOF!" he yelped when Gana got him in a bear-hug grip from behind. "Get off of me you old fool!" His left shin guard unattached itself and bit into Gana's leg behind Alucard.

"AH!"

Alucard quickly jumped backwards, ripping himself from Gana's hold. Trent rushed at him again from behind him; he turned to lock blades with Trent. "Your tactics are no use against me, first-year!" Alucard slashed upwards, knocking Trent's sword away, and cut back downward for Trent, who caught the blade. "You have no chance to knock me away…"

"I'm not gonna, they are!"

"Hm?"

Jiece came out of nowhere to deliver a devastating slide-kick to Alucard's ankles, knocking his balance off. In synchronization with Jiece, Mina rushed in with a tackle to his upper body; the combined forces knocking him completely off the ground into a stationary flip. Trent, while Alucard was airborne and confused, grabbed his legs and spun him around, letting go a moment later and sending him flying into the wall.

"Ugh…" he shook his head, "you little ingrates, I'll have you-!"

**THOK!**

He was interrupted by being landed on by Ifrit. Jackson raised his staff triumphantly. "Woo! Bull's-eye! Ifrit throw him to Dieh!"

Ifrit obeyed and clenched Alucard's semi-unconscious body in what would normally be a killing grip, and then threw his limp body towards Dieh, who raised his staff high into the air. "Go, Veyga!"

Immediately a shimmering, winged Pegasus rocketed forward over Dieh, skewering Alucard on its horn. Jackson ran over to Dieh and faced him intently. "You ready?"

"You bet."

The Pegasus disappeared, as did Ifrit. Alucard lay limply on the ground, just barely stirring. "Ugh… god damnit…" He slowly raised himself to one knee, shaking and weary. He held his palm up to the gaping hole in his chest. "Cura…"

Jackson and Dieh hooked their curved staves together and called out in unison. "Summon Fusion: Ifrit and Veyga to make…" their staves began to burn a great white light, they ran towards Alucard, staves still hooked, and bashed him away with a crushing dual-blow to the face as he got up, all the while still in summoning. "Lord Odin! God of flame!"

Alucard barely had time to look up before he was confronted by Odin. A great flaming centaur, burning white-hot, stood proudly on its six enormous legs, standing nearly 40 feet tall in its entirety. Odin raised four flaming scimitars, one in each arm, and stared down at Alucard. Everyone was either in silent awe or scared to death of the God. Alucard just sat there, silent and gaping, until he finally opened his mouth.

"**HOLY SHI-!"**

**CRASH!**

Odin brought his scimitar down and through the stone flooring, cleaving off nearly half of Alucard's body in the process as the other half fell down to the bottom of the room with the rest of the debris. "Odin disperse!"

Everyone slowly gathered around the cleaved body, completely silent. The sounds of shifting debris could still be heard from below, the sound echoing throughout the room, until finally all was silent. "…is he…"

Suddenly Alucard's eyes shot open and all eleven of them were sent flying back, crashing into the out walls by a crushing gravity. Alucard stood up on his one leg and half a body, holding up his one arm and controlling his boneblade with his mind. The blade floated awkwardly up past Alucard's mangled face, eyes wide-open and bloodshot; quivering, and stopped when it reached his wrist. "Enough games!" he shouted as the blade zipped by his exposed arm, slitting his wrist's veins.

Black blood spurted out immediately and covered his entire body after a few minutes before finally stopping. Covered in the inky blackness, a small lump began to form on the bloodied mass that was once the inside of his chest. It slowly began to grow until it took shape into a new torso, arm, and leg; a new head sprouting up moments later. "I have no more need for this frail body!"

He encircled himself in his black cloak, shutting him out from the rest of them. The cloak tightened around him, distinctly displaying the outline of his body. Suddenly the cloak grew twice as wide, depicting the form of two Alucards. When he unraveled himself, Aran's body fell limply to the floor.

"ARAN!"

"He can't hear you, you know…" Alucard stepped forward, now much paler and thinner. He now wore a long, black robe trimmed with gold. His hair had grown long, to his mid-chest, and he wore a blindfold. "Trust me, he won't be alive for long either… there's about a 20 percent chance he'll live… and if he does, he will grow stronger than ever." He walked closer to the middle of the floor, laughing quietly.

"Most won't survive half of their life being ripped away from them so quickly…" Alucard lifted Aran's body up with his mind and flung it across the room, where Gana caught it. "Now I'll let the rest of you leave in peace… but Verikk and I have a score to settle…"

Everyone looked to Verikk, who drew his sword and faced them. "Go! It is for the best." He turned back to Alucard, who smirked. Gana quickly headed for the exit, the others not far behind him, knowing it was not best to argue with Verikk **or** Gana.

"No holds barred, Verikk?"

"None at all."

"Good."

Verikk immediately started the final match with a shape shift. "Ninja!" Bright purple smoke enveloped Verikk's body, rendering him completely hidden. It was suddenly whisked away to reveal Verikk sporting red and black samurai armor, seven blades waiting in their holsters by his side. Alucard smiled.

"I'm so sorry, Verikk, but I have no real intention of fighting you… I just need to kill some time before the master senses I have awakened and comes for me."

Verikk rushed to Alucard, two katanas drawn, and "x-slashed" him. Alucard merely grabbed them himself and bent them away. He jumped back and waved a finger at Verikk. "There won't be any swords if I can say anything about it, old friend."

Verikk teleported behind Alucard and slashed his throat with the now curved blades. "What do you say about **that**, then?" Alucard immediately jumped upright and clenched his wound shut, immediately sowing itself up.

"I say look out behind you!"

Verikk turned quickly just in time to dodge a high-velocity rock flung in his direction. Another sped at him from behind, smashing into him; a third to the face, fourth to the arm. Verikk dodged the next few and noticed what was happening. The walls themselves were crumbling down, Alucard controlling every bit of rock and flinging it towards Verikk. _He'll bring this place down on both of us!_

Verikk came back to Alucard with a series of mad slashes, each one bouncing right off of him, all the while dodging the flung rocks; Alucard simply laughing. _I'm ending this, now!_ "Shadowbolt!"

Verikk's signature lightning fast blade attack shot past Alucard's side, decapitating his arm. Verikk regained himself and readied it again. "Shadowbolt!" he said again, rushing past Alucard, who gracefully dodged it and dug his hand into Verikk's scalp as he passed, nearly ripping it off in heavy recoil.

"**Never** use the same attack twice, Verikk." He threw Verikk into the air above and teleported to his side. "Now let me show you how it is done… Shadowbolt!" Sixteen Alucards appeared around Verikk's airborne body in a spherical formation. They began speeding past Verikk one by one, causing minor cuts at first, slowly turning to deep gashes.

As soon as one copy went past Verikk, it teleported back to its starting point and redid the attack over and over again. The attacks continued, along with the speeding rocks still breaking against Verikk's battered form, until all of a sudden it stopped and Alucard landed in front of Verikk's grounded body; Alucard looking up to something, still and intense, as if listening to something.

"Yes master…" he turned back to Verikk and grinned evilly. "It's been fun, Verikk… make sure Aran knows what happened." And he disappeared.

Verikk stirred slightly on the ground. "Cura…" He coughed a bit before looking up, seeing the great, empty, cavernous room. He pounded his fist to the ground in rage. "Damnit!" he rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, spirit laden with defeat. "He got away… I vowed to kill him, and he got away…"

Verikk stood up and wiped some blood from his forehead. "Teleport: Academy."

And vanished…

--

"Good to have you back, Alucard… so nice to see you're in top condition." The master spoke from his side of the communication glyph.

"It's good to be back, master…" Alucard said, bowing to the hologram form of his superior.

"Please, now, Alucard… do not be so formal, you may call me by my true name…"

Alucard laughed. "Alright then: It's good to be back, Sephiroth."

--

**I hope you enjoyed it AND the cliffhanger! The master is Sephie! Can you say "plot-twist"? Anyway, the communication thing is what Astos and Kadaj's gang were using a while back, same thing… just so you know. I apologize for the ending fight scene, not quite up to par with others, I know… don't hurt me.**

**NO RANT!**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	21. Mission Earth: NY, part 1

**I FINALLY GOT MY NEW iPOD! AND ALSO I HAVE A MYSPACE! Just type in myspace.chom/heroacademy and you get there. (Minus the "h" in com.) Also, this chapter itself will have a nice new style to it (NOT permanent), enjoy!**

Mission Earth: New York, part 1

"Alright now, guys…" Astos consulted the dreary group, early in the morning. "We won't have enough time for any classes today… so go get some breakfast and then meet back here in an hour to leave for earth."

There were assorted tired murmurs of acknowledgement before everyone went about their business.

-10:00 A.M.-

No one ever made it to the breakfast table… they all had unexpected "things" to attend to…these are their stories.

-9:00 A.M.-Rinn

Rinn walked out from the dormitory into the open, empty hallway. The sounds of his steps echoed through the halls and bounced off of the immense walls. Rinn yawned. _Oooh yeah… real exciting, all right…you know what? I don't think there **is** anything more boring than an empty hallway… not good for waking—_

**THONK**

_--up _

Rinn rubbed his head as he stood up to help the person he had walked into up. To his surprise, he pulled up the illustrious Verikk Furston. "Verikk!" Rinn greeted happily, "morning!"

Verikk shook his head dizzily for a moment before facing Rinn. "Ah, Rinn, just who I was looking for!"

"For what?"

"You see, I've noticed that you have exceptional talent in casting your basic spells."

"How so?"

"Well, to start… to be able to cast something so quickly as for not even Alucard to notice is quite amazing… not even I, a first class paladin, can rapidcast like that! Not many others can either."

"Aw, quit it, you're embarrassing me." Rinn said sarcastically.

Verikk chuckled. "Alright, Mr. Sarcasm, just come with me… I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised."

-9:00 A.M. - Trent 

Trent set out to leave almost as soon as Astos had finished speaking when he noticed a lump under the sheets of Mina's bed. It was, of course, Mina.

"Hey," Trent poked the lump, "psst," he poked it again, "Astos said we had to get up… c'mon… up and at 'em!"

The lump turned over to face Trent and pulled the sheets off its face. Mina stared groggily at Trent. "Why are you standing right next to me while I'm sleeping, Trent…?"

"Waking you up."

There was a short pause. "You're just lucky I'm too tired to assume things, or else I'd have beaten you up and falsely accused you of being some creepy closet pervert for watching me while I sleep."

"…what?"

"Never mind…" Mina threw off the sheets and leapt out of bed, stretching and sporting nothing more than an undershirt and a pair of black boxers. Trent raised an eyebrow.

"You wear **boxers**?"

"What, just because I'm a woman means I can't?"

"No, it's just… never mind, go ahead." Trent headed out of the dormitory into the hall, just barely catching sight of Rinn and Verikk as they turned the corner at the end of the hall. _Dude, where are you going? Breakfast!_

"Hey, Trent!"

-9:00 A.M. – Mina and Paris

Mina walked into the bathroom, toothbrush in hand. An easily recognizable shadow was cast on the shower curtains from inside the shower. "Hey Paris," Mina mumbled.

"Good morning, Mina, sleep well?"

"Well enough… aw man!"

"Hm?"

"I forgot the toothpaste, be right back… hey, what the…" She fumbled with the doorknob.

"Something wrong?" Paris asked as she rinsed out her hair.

There was a long silence and then a sigh. "Looks like we're locked in…"

-9:00 A.M. – Jiece

Jiece was the first to walk out of the door, five minutes ago, and was almost at Celestial Hall when he was stopped by a sound he had never heard before. It was a bold new sound, very solid and pleasing to the ears, sounding out rhythmically in a pattern, like music.

_Wow… what is that? _He thought, _Is that sound coming from an instrument? I gotta go find out! _And he immediately ran off towards the sound, eventually ending back where he started, in front of the Leonhart dorm's doors.

There were four doors leading to different year-sections of the Leonhart dorm in the common room, each above the one before it. For instance, the first-year's room was through the bottom door, the second-year's dorm was the 2nd to lowest door, etc. Towards the top door, there was a single person, a bard, sitting on the staircase.

He looked over to Jiece and smiled, "ah, Jiece, I thought that might have attracted you."

"Well ya got me, did you want something? And what **is** that?"

"This, my friend," he held up the curious stringed instrument, "is a guitar."

"Guitar? Never heard of it."

"I wouldn't think so…" he got up and walked down the staircase, offering his hand to Jiece. "I'm Jack, a fourth year bard; pleased to meet you."

Jiece shook his hand, "pleased to meet you, as well. So… why wouldn't I have heard of it?"

"Oh, right. Well, you see… it's not an instrument made in Graphia, I got this one in a trip to a place called earth."

"No way! I'm going to earth in just an hour!"

"Really now? Then have I ever got something for you!" he reached into the case for the guitar and pulled out a slip of paper. "This is a pass for free starting guitar lessons, valid at any "Precision Music" shop. There ware tons of precision music stores all over Earth, so you're bound to run into one at some point, take it."

"You're giving it to me? Don't you need it?"

"Naw, I learned to play from some band that my group saved, and I got this coupon."

"Why do you want me to have it?"

"Well, I saw some of your bard casting in the tower of power, and that was impressive. Some second-year music, as well! I think you should definitely make good use of this."

"Dang… thanks!" The door slammed behind them, reminding Jiece about food. "Gotta go, talk to you later!" And he ran out, Jack waved.

"Have a good time on earth!"

Jiece bolted out of the door to see Trent a good ways into the hall, and Rinn and Verikk turning the corner at the very end. "Hey, Trent!"

-9:15 A.M. – Dieh and Jackson

"Dude, how long are they gonna be in the bathroom? I really need to shower."

"Yeah, I know… Sheesh."

-9:00 thru 10:00 A.M. - Naru

"Zzzzz…. Zzzzz…. Zzzzz…."

-9:20 A.M. – Rinn

Rinn and Verikk finally reached Verikk's study, a rather large, oval-shaped room lined with dozens of books on all sides, excluding an area towards the back where a desk and armchair lay. "This way."

He pulled a book from the bottom of a stack on the desk and dusted it off. "In this book, you'll find some post-elemental spells… I have full confidence in your ability to learn these."

"Post-elemental?"

"Yes, normally not taught due to their extreme difficulty to learn. They're spells of different elements from the basic four. Like this one right here, aero…"

-9:20 A.M. – Trent and Jiece

Again, the two were almost at the doors to Celestial Hall when another disturbance was met. Stil, Andrew, and Hannah turned the corner that Rinn and Verikk had, only coming **towards** the hall this time, meeting up directly with Jiece and Trent.

There was a long, tense silence as the Strife dorm's trio stared angrily at the two. Trent, of course, broke the silence with probably the worst possible thing to say at that point. "Those are the guys we called moronic losers, right Jiece?"

"GET 'EM!"

"Shi--!"

-9:40 A.M. – Mina and Paris

"Mina?"

"Eh…?" Mina responded grouchily, scraping off soap scum to pass the time.

"Can't you just barge through the door?"

"Not without shields, I can't… plus it's probably ultra-super-shielded to add privacy or something stupid like that…"

"Oh…"

-9:45 A.M. – Dieh and Jackson

"Got any threes?"

"Nope, go fish."

"Aw…"

…

…

…

"When do we get to eat the fish?"

-9:53 A.M. – Rinn

"Aero!" A large, green-tinted twister quickly formed in the middle out the room and began to spin rapidly, pulling books off the shelves and sending papers flying in all directions. After about 30 seconds, it died down, leaving the room a complete mess.

"Very good, Rinn. Reversal!" Verikk snapped his fingers and everything went back to where it was supposed to be instantly. "Now try the earth-based spell."

"Terra!"

With that, large chunks of stone flew out of their sockets in the walls and floated just above the center of the room. Rinn shifted them forwards, backwards, and spun them around a bit.

"Now see if you can't put them back." But just as Rinn started to, Verikk interrupted him. "Oh, look at the time. You should actually get going now, shouldn't you?"

"Oh, man, you're right! Thank you so much for the lesson, Verikk."

"My pleasure, Rinn, it is my job, after all."

-9:55 A.M. – Trent and Jiece

They barged hurriedly back into the room, panting like maniacs and sweating like pigs. "JESUS CHRIST!" Trent finally yowled out. "How that crazy woman can sprint for **HALF A GOD-DAMNED HOUR **with a fuggin' warhammer, I will **never** know!"

"Seriously, man… that shit was scary as hell…"

"What happened to you guys?" Dieh asked.

-9:56 A.M. – Mina and Paris

"So… you would need shields to barge through that door, eh?" Paris had hatched a devious plan.

"Er… yeah, probably… why?"

"Nothing, nothing… I'm just pretty sure that's probably what a victimized woman would say about this situation…"

Mina instantly bolted upright and braced herself to charge the door. "The power of feminism COMPELS THEE!"

**KLA-THOKRUNCH! splinter splinter**

"Holy freaking hell, Mina! Did you just rip that door off of its hinges with sheer force!"

Mina looked left, right, and back towards the now doorless bathroom. "Yes."

-9:55 A.M. – Dieh and Jackson

"What happened to you guys?" Dieh asked.

"Oh, well, you see…"

"The power of feminism COMPELS THEE!"

"What was that?"

"Wasn't m-"

**KLA-THOKRUNCH! splinter splinter**

"Holy freaking hell, Mina! Did you just rip that door off of its hinges with sheer force!"

-10:00 A.M. – All

Rinn and Astos walked into the room at the same time to be greeted with a very… unexpected sight. The bathroom door was no more, Dieh was bewildered while Jackson was trying to "eat the fish", Trent and Jiece looked exhausted, Mina looked awfully pleased with herself as much as Paris looked frightened of her; finally, Naru was just getting up and seemed perfectly fine.

"What the…"

"Don't ask," said Dieh, "just… just don't."

--

After much explanation, yelling, and walking, the group finally came to the warp room. At the very bottom of the Academy, the warp room was really just a long rectangular room, lined with circular, blue portals on either wall. (cough Jak and Daxter cough)

"Ours is number sixteen, so…"

"Wait just a second, guys." A voice shouted from the entrance to the room, which they were now far from.

Everyone turned to face the entrance to see none other than Aran hobbling towards them, followed closely by the head white mage. "Aran!"

Aran finally came to meet them, on crutches and with a broken leg. The HWM spoke instructively. "I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen, and he is still very injured… though, I must say, his healing capacity is marvelous! He continues to heal himself at a vastly accelerated rate and should be back on his feet in a matter of hours."

"Great! Anything we should know not to do?" Astos responded with respect for his superior.

"This." Trent kicked Aran in the shin.

"AUGH!"

"Well, yes, that… but Aran, just make sure you don't overexert yourself while you are out there, your leg could snap like a twig in its current condition."

"Yeah, yeah… I got it."

"Holy snaps! It's almost 10:10! The portal closes in 30 seconds!" Astos panicked.

Portal sixteen was indeed beginning to shrink, and Astos was nearly throwing the team into it. "Go, go, go, go, and go!"

Aran limped through as speedily as he could and Astos dived in behind him, the vortex closing up too soon and taking his shoe as he did. Everyone's vision was blurred as a violent shaking set everything out of focus and blended colors together, finally bursting into a bright white light and leaving everyone blinded.

--

**Well, there you have it, a nice little break before the next big multi-part, and I hope you'll enjoy it. Happy fourth of july!**

**-Heyyoooooooooo RANT!-**

**Today' rant: the eternally poor gamer.**

**So I went to wall mart today to get a copy of EVE online, when I notice a box depicting a man in roman armor fighting a slobbering hydra… now for a peek into my train of thought at that point:**

**Holy shit, I forgot that Titan Quest shipped out on Wednesday! But… what about EVE? Titan or EVE? TITAN OR EVE! Oh hey, World of Warcraft… I didn't know that wall mart got WoW… wait… CRAP! Titan? EVE? Warcraft?**

**Oh my god… Valkirie? Air? Since when did wall mart start getting Japanese imports… /droll… EVE OR TITAN OR AIR OR WARCRAFT OR VALKIRIE OR GOD DAMN!**

**And that's pretty much how it went… I ended up getting nothing, the store closed before I could decide. I dragged abut 3 video game sales reps down with me in the decision… they "felt my pain."**

**Cheers, Jiece. (Should have gotten Titan Quest…)**


	22. Mission Earth: NY, part 2

**Please remember to read pt. 1 first, thank you.**

Mission Earth: New York, part 2

"Hey, Rinn…"

_Hm…?_

"Riiiiiinn… you okaaayy…?"

_Who is talking to… me…?_

"Oh! I've got an idea…"

…

"**WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP NOW!"**

Rinn shot upwards, heart racing from sudden sleep disruption. "Huh? Buh? Wha?"

Trent smiled knowingly at Aran, just in front of Rinn. "Told you shouting always helps."

Rinn took notice of his surroundings. They were in what seemed to be a small alley corner wedged in between two tall skyscrapers. The alley was cold and wet, with large, green dumpster just feet away, which Trent had now seated himself on. Astos called attention to himself and held up a piece of parchment. "This is the guy we're looking for…" he said.

Immediately an image appeared on the paper. A hunched over, scaly looking man was depicted, completely black with two white stripes going down from either shoulder to either wrist. A large plume of some kind of fur covered his neck and upper body, kind of like a moth, which was colored a dark grey. One particularly noticeable piece of this creature, though, was his eyes. Blood red and segmented, like a fly, they added on to the "insect" look he had.

"Its name is unknown; we purely refer to it as "multiplier", for reasons that should be obvious due to the name." The picture suddenly split into two separate multipliers, which then split into four, then eight…

"Dang…"

"Yeah," Astos said, rolling up the paper, "dang… So, now, our objective is to locate and contain multiplier, or however many multipliers there are now. The only word of advice I can give to you is to keep a low profile. Get in, contain, and get out. That's our job."

Astos pointed to his ear, indicating the small, blue linkpearl in it. "During the transportation, each of you was given one of these linkpearls, located in the left ear. When you want to talk to the rest of us, tap it and speak. To send a homing signal when you find multiplier, double tap it. We clear?"

"Yes!"

"Righty-oh!"

"You know it!"

"Yup!"

"Now, details… I'm sure you all brought the three gil each that I instructed you to bring?"

There was a collective "yes."

"Good. If at any time you see a "gold exchange" building, trade in the three gil for the local currency. In the event of an emergency, you'll be glad you have it." Astos finished.

Dieh raised a finger. "Uh, three gil won't translate into much money, will it?"

Astos shook his head vigorously. "Ooh no, no, no. As you know, gil is made of solid gold… a substance that is **very** valuable on earth. Three gil will translate roughly into… 3,000 dollars."

…

…

"…dollars?"

"Yeah, right… never mind. In this world, the equivalent of one gil is one dollar… so just think of it as being able to multiply your money count by 1,000 for free."

"Works for me!" shouted Trent, losing his balance and falling off of the dumpster. "Oof!"

"Finally… you all need new clothes…" Astos snapped his fingers. In an instant and a puff of smoke, robes were replaced by T-shirts and jeans, cloaks replaced with jackets, and gauntlets replaced with gloves.

Most marveled at the strange new fashion, while Trent immediately took notice to the stat effects. "Holy hell! This stuff is **way** lighter than my plate armor! I feel so light, I could-!" He kicked off of the ground and skyrocketed into the air, hurtling at lightning-fast speeds, farther and farther into the sky until finally, he vanished from view.

Everyone stared questioningly into the sky, waiting for his return. Aside from the cars honking and the chatter of pedestrians just beyond the alley, there wasn't a sound to be heard. After a whole two minutes, a black dot appeared in the sky, slowly becoming larger and larger until finally Trent's form was distinguishable. He slammed into the ground, creating a small crater in the hard cement, breaking all around to form multiple cracks that spidered up the walls of the buildings the group was wedged between. Having landed on his feet, he was immediately brought to the ground with recoil, falling on his back. "Tha wath awethome…" he said as he spit out a tooth.

Astos stood over him and chuckled slightly. "Like I said, low profile." He checked his time glyph and addressed the group once more. "So, the portal opens at approximately 11:00 A.M. tomorrow morning, which gives us exactly 24 hours. When we've captured multiplier, I'll send a homing signal from the inn we'll be staying at; we'll sleep the night and leave in the morning. For now, though, split up and search!"

"Right!"

--

"Numbers 205-243, how is the fusion reactor holding up?"

"Fine, number 43!"

"Good, good… numbers 190-204, what about the dark matter generator?"

"Fully functional, number 43!"

"Excellent, keep up the good work…" Multiplier yowled hoarsely to his copies as he continued to run the system check. "Numbers 150-189, how is the nitrogen cooling system?"

"Making a noise, number 43!"

"Perfect…" Multiplier uttered as he reached the end of the mechanics hall, approaching the grand control room. Upon reaching the hefty steel doors, he knocked and shouted. "Sir, number 43 to report!"

"Come in, number 43…"

Number 43 stepped into the grand control room; facing the original multiplier, seated at the control desk. The original stood up and walked up to his 43rd clone of himself. "How are the workers doing on reactivating this building?"

"Pretty well, sir. Worker numbers 150-500 are all stationed and fully functional."

The original cocked an eyebrow. "You mention only 350 out of 360 of the workers… what of numbers 501-510?"

"W-well, s-sir…" number 43 stammered, "they encountered a problem with deactivating secondary security protocols, they are working on it as we speak… only a bit late."

"Late you say, clone number 43? Did you not punish them?"

"S-sir, for just such a small e-error, I just thought…"

"**Did you punish them?**"

"E-er… eh, n-no sir…"

"Well then…" the original snapped his fingers, freezing his clone in place. "You are as expendable as they are!"

"**No! Sir, I-!"**

In one quick, bloodcurdling move, the original swallowed his weaker copy whole, leaving him alive to burn horribly in his stomach acids before dying three hours later. He smiled and mockingly wiped his mouth. "Delicious…"

--

**Damn… dude, I got kinda scared after I wrote that ending… even I don't know why I would kill someone so horribly. Damn me… damn me all to hell!**

**Anyway, sorry for late update… Fourth of July and all… anyway, next update will be much quicker, see you soon! Also, I would like to apologize for the shortness of the chapter, there wouldn't be another stopping point for a WHILE, and so I had to cut it short, sorry! Stay tuned for episode two of the frivolously misdirected adventures of TRENT!**

**--**

**R to the A to the N to the T that's RANT!**

**Today's rant: SONY AGAIN**

**I'd like to start off by saying… WHAT THE FECKING HELL, SONY!**

**Look, not only does the PS3 cost $600 AND copy ideas from the others companies, but get a load of the following! Sony's PS3 games will sell for (and I quote from the head of Sony's playstation branch…) No less than 70 dollars, and no more than 100 dollars. **

**I close by saying: Sony really needs to get their act together… I'll probably buy a PS3 regardless, but still!**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	23. Reader CONTEST THING!

**Well, we have a good news bad news situation, everyone. The bad news is that I HAVE HIT A COMPLETE AND TOTAL WRITERS BLOCK ever since seeing "Pirate of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" twice… so I won't be updating for a couple more days… **

**Before the good news, have you ever noticed how Jackson's last name sounds nothing like a regular final fantasy? It's because he is based off of my real friend, Jackson Crumbley. The good news, you ask? Now to as well can have yourself join in the adventures of Rinn and the gang.**

**Simply leave a review with the following stats filled out to match your personal information and YOU can appear as a permanent character in Hero Academy. (I will accept these "stats" at any time, so if you leave the stats many chapters/months from now, I will still try.) Enjoy!**

**Also, your character can be your real age, but set it to an age corresponding to the year (year 1: age 13-15, year 2: age 14-16, etc…) if you want to be directly involved with the gang.**

**--**

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Hair color:**

**Eye color:**

**Height:**

**Class:**

**Weapon of choice:**

**Specialty:**

**Signature Moves (and description of said moves):**

**Backstory:**

**Description:**

**--**

**Feel free to add anything to that, just know that everything there MUST BE LISTED. Anything else is optional.**

**Have fun!**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	24. Mission Earth: NY, part 3

**Well thanks to everyone who sent in their character stats, keep an eye out for yours. If you haven't yet, it's still not too late, so go ahead! With that said, enjoy this next installment in Mission Earth!**

**Mission Earth: New York, part 3**

**Aka: The frivolously misdirected adventures of Trent, episode two.**

New York City… a place of enjoyment, commerce, and smash-hit Broadway musicals. A place where people go freely about their daily lives, where both crime and innocence runs rampant. A place where entire histories can be wiped out with the flick of a switch, and where they can be started in the push of a button. A place where new events and places are starting and thriving every day in a never ending flow of prosperity and moderate happiness…

Trent, of course, did not know or care of these things, so he just continued to walk down the street he was on, one objective in mind: _find a gold exchange building... got to find a god-danged gold exchange building… oh, there's one! _He thought as his eye caught sight of a sign reading: "New York Gold and Diamond Exchange." He walked inside, a pocket filled to the brim with over 5,000 gil.

_Ha! They thought they were so smart, bringing 3 gil…nice trick Astos pulled there; everyone knows you can't even buy a potion with three gil. With 5,000 gil, I can probably buy a nice ogre-slaying sword or something…_ Trent thought as he waiting in a short line labeled "gold exchanges."

_Wait a minutes, didn't Astos say something about different values or something…? Oh well. Oh, hey, my turn in line!_

Trent stepped up to the counter, level with the man just behind. A highly astute man, you could tell by his look that just screamed "snob", monocle and all. A gold pocket watch was nestled in the pocked of his blue, fitted suit; a gold chain running from it to a higher button on the suit. "Run along little boy," he said in a definite French accent, his tiny waxed mustache bobbing up and down in time with his lips, "we do not exchange fool's gold at my establishment."

Trent looked around the place with a touch of mock sophistication. Seemingly taking the marble flooring and walls into great consideration, finally focusing on the crystal chandelier for a moment before turning back to the head of the exchange. "And what a fine establishment it is…" He pulled out the large, burlap sack filled with 24 carat gold gil, busting at the seams from heavy weight, and placed it on the counter. "But if you don't want the business, I'll take it elsewhere…"

The owner simply stood staring, mouth gaping, until his monocle fell out and jostled him from his stunned state. "N-no!" he stuttered, now feeling a sense of complete respect for Trent, "we would be very happy to do business with you!"

--

23 long, legal and financial minutes later…

--

"Huh…" Trent wondered aloud as he once again began to walk through the streets of New York. "Five million dollars, huh? 'Wonder if that's a lot of money in this world…?" He continued his pondering as he walked, many people casting him odd looks, having never seen a boy with natural crimson red hair. Trent's attention was diverted from the rather large stack of 500 ten-thousand dollar bills to the window of a shop he had almost passed by.

"Carl Cosplay's Costume warehouse!" it read. Trent pressed his face to the window to get a closer look. Articles of clothing of all kinds lined the walls. There were sunglasses, masks, suits, vests, jackets, shorts, chaps… Trinkets and accessories of all sorts and sizes were displayed in a large glass case towards the back, and… oh, wait, too late, Trent already walked in.

"Hey, shopkeep!"

A relatively short, thin man in a pink tuxedo turned around from taking stock of the back wall shelves to face Trent. "Well hey there, stranger! Come to outfit yourself for a party?"

"Actually, I'm just browsing around… the entire city. What do you have in the way of… not factory made and cheap?"

"Ah, well," the shopkeeper said as he stepped out from behind the front desk and walked towards a door leading into a back room. "I might have a few things back here… or I think I have some materials I could make something out of…" He stepped into the room, returning minutes later with a large stack of costumes; he led Trent to a dressing room. "Try some of these on for size…"

--

Half an hour later…

--

"Well the clown suit was horrible… the cowboy getup a wreck… the Irishman's kilt didn't look too great…"

Trent looked up to see a large, gilded case mounted to the wall displaying a plain black suit, pants, shoes, and tie with a black fedora hat and sunglasses. Just above said case was a plaque labeled "Elwood Blues' suit- authentic." Trent turned to the mumbling shopkeeper, failed in his quest to find the perfect outfit for anyone. "Say, uh… that thing looks about my size…" He pointed to the suit.

The shopkeeper laughed. "Well yes, I suppose it would fit you nicely, but that is the real suit worn by Dan Akroyd from musical: 'The Blues Brothers.'"

"…and?"

"Well, you can buy it if you've got 20,000 dollars on you, but I don't think-…" he was cut short as Trent handed him two of his ten-thousand dollar bills and walked over to open the case containing the suit of Elwood Blues; he took it out and hastily threw it on.

"How do I look?"

The shopkeeper stood up and stared at Trent with glee, then stared at the money with even more glee, then back to Trent, and the money once more. "Fantastic. It suits you perfectly!" He bustled over to Trent and handed him a slip of paper. "Here's my card, come back if you ever need it fixed up… or if you need anything else!" He ran off back towards the cash register to store his new found wealth, smiling broadly.

"Alrighty-oh then! Bye!"

And thus began the semi-epic adventures of Trent once more! He kept getting even **more** strange looks now due to his latest choice in fashion, though he didn't mind… or notice; not even when everyone in the sandwich shop he was in was staring at him as he stood in line. Now munching on a roast-beef-and-provolone-on-wheat-bread sandwich, he turned the corner to find a long, clean street. Aside from some sleek cars with annoying blinking blue and red lights, it was near empty.

Upon closer inspection of the cars, which he now saw were closely grouped together around the entrance to a bank, Trent found they read "police" on the sides. _Huh, wonder what "police" means._ Then the men came into view. Armed with guns, they were all hidden behind the cars, aimed at the door. As Trent slowly made his way towards the scene, one of the men shouted something with a sense of urgency in his voice.

Many began to run away or dive out of the way as a great armored car rammed through the front doors of the bank, bashing the police cars in every direction, slamming into some of the men themselves, others knocked out by the sheers force of the armored car's bust through the entrance. It sped up the road towards Trent, visibly increasing in speed as its hulking form grew larger and larger from Trent's point of view, until it was but a mere two feet from him.

Trent extended his arm and grabbed hold of the front of the armored car with his one right hand, lifting it high into the air until it was vertical and stationary. He gulped down the last bite of his sandwich and saw the two men driving the car, frozen in fear of the well-dressed boy with superhuman strength. "Dude," Trent said, both men in the driver's seat recoiling at the word. "That was really mean," he said through a mouth full of sandwich.

There was a bit of a silence, both men in black ski masks still shaking, while Trent finished chewing and swallowed. "Now I don't know what kind of crazy, mixed up world you guys have here, but I think that no matter where you are, that should be considered rude. Now hows about we go back and apologize to those nice police men over there for knocking over their cars, okay?" He put the armored car down a bit too hard as it crushed all four tires on impact. "Oops…"

The men nearly fell out of the car as they scrambled upright, shakily aiming their handguns. They stood staring at Trent; to them, a super-powered demon in a black suit, until finally one slipped and fired his gun. The bullet sped towards Trent's face a bounced harmlessly off of his ear… he merely scratched it, and said "go on, apologize." Without warning, the back of the armored car swung open to let several heavy bags of money spill onto the road, which Trent caught sight of immediately. "Hey… you guys were stealing that money, weren't you?"

They both dropped their guns and made a mad dash back towards the bank, only to be lifted off the ground by their shirt collars by Trent. "That's it, its police people for you two!" and proceeded to walk back to the sight of the crime, people slowly reappearing around corners and looking through windows to see what had happened. "Here ya go!" Trent chided happily as he handed the two criminal over to the few conscious police men.

After getting everything squared away and the two were handcuffed in the back of a police car, the senior officer came up Trent. "Thanks a lot for the help back there, those bastards have been on the top of the wanted list for some time… so yeah, thanks… uhhh… what'd you say your name was?"

Trent was about to answer when he was drawn back by his thoughts. _Hmm… I could just tell him my name is Trent, but that's my real name, I use it too often. I'm more powerful than any of the people on this world, like a superhero even! I've got it!_

"You can call me…" he adopted the classic superman stance (hands on hips, looking towards the horizon, feet firmly planted on the ground)…

…

"The Masked Millionaire!"

--

Meanwhile…

--

Only three out of eight members of the Braska dorm's first years were concerned with the scheduling of the next two weeks. They were on the outer rims of the academy grounds, fighting off a few animated stuffed dummies for practice. The leader of the group, Sergin, was fending off three at a time with one arm firmly tied behind his back.

One of them, a bare-fist fighter by the name of Kutota, hacked his dummy into its original pieces and began carelessly tossing them at Sergin. "What exactly do you think you're doing, Kutota?" Sergin hissed.

"Well you're doing just fine with those three, so I thought I'd make it a bit harder for you." Kutota responded sarcastically. The third of the trio, an ice mage named Crystal, stepped towards Kutota after she had successfully frozen twenty or so dummies solid.

"No, Kutota, that's not how you tick him off…" she picked up a piece of the dummy and hardened it with ice, then threw at Sergin. "There, ya see? That one made a nice, satisfying crack." Kutota and Crystal shared a short laugh as Sergin ripped his arm from its bounds.

"**Fuma Shurikunai!**"

Immediately the three dummies were pinned to nearby trees with an assortment of throwing weapons, struggling hopelessly against the force of the strong metal. Sergin sheathed his remaining blades and began to walk back to the academy. "We're done here…"

"But hey! What about the grudge match against the Leonhart dorm in two weeks! They're really good and we need training!" Crystal shouted out as she chased after Sergin. Suddenly he turned around, leaving Crystal just enough time to stop herself before she ran into him.

"Please, that bunch of halfway heroes can't fight nearly as well as we can, they only won last time because of Rinn's trance… and what are the chances of that happening again so soon? We can handle it."

"But… I…"

Kutota caught up to Crystal after Sergin had vanished back to the Braska dorm. "Ah, forget him Crystal, you know Sergin… he's always doing that whole 'end of discussion' bit…"

--

Meanwhile again…

--

"We are nearly there, brothers… only two more days and our deal is as good as done!" Kadaj yelled triumphantly.

"And after we complete our task, the master will have to finally give us what we want, right brothers?" Loz added as Kadaj nodded. Yazoo, though, was merely remaining silent while he contemplated the potential fiasco.

_Yes, brothers… we shall receive mother from the master… and then I can finally see my son again, and bring him to us… he'll thank me once he is a demon like us…_

The trio started their engines and began the ride once more. _I'm coming for you, my son…_

--

**Howdy ho folks, it's one AM and I've been typing for four hours straight, so I pray to god that you appreciate this chapter. To those of you whose characters were introduced, please contact me if I didn't portray them correctly or if you would like to talk to me about anything concerning them, thank you. **

**E-mail: beltwhip yahoo.chom (without the "h")**

**AIM screenname: HueyFreeman21**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	25. Mission Earth: NY, part 4

**Well then, glad to see you all appreciated the masked millionaire. Anydangway, I'm going off to camp on Sunday, so I'll be gone for two weeks. I'll try my best to finish mission earth before I leave. Cheers!**

Mission Earth: New York, part four.

That night...

The music hall's low rumble of it's hundreds of attendee's voices dulled slightly as a man came up onto the stage, baring a sole microphone. He looked up onto the group and roared triumphantly: "Alright, guys and gals, let's hear a big round of applause for RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!"

A deafening roar of clapping very similar to that of the Hero Academy's Stadium fans' was heard as curtains were drawn back to reveal the band. The vocalist stepped out to the edge of the stage and raised a fist. "Alright ya'll, check dis sh!t out!"

Jiece sifted through the crowd in mid-chase of a multiplier, rapier ready to be un-sheathed if need be.

**_Every official that comes in  
Cripples us leaves us maimed  
Silent and tamed  
And with our flesh and bones  
He builds his homes  
Southern fist  
Rise through tha jungle mist  
Clenched to smash power so cancerous  
A black flag and a red star  
A rising sun loomin' over Los Angeles  
Cause for Raza livin in La La  
Is like Gaza on to tha dawn of Intifada  
Reach for tha lessons tha masked pass on  
And seize tha metropolis  
It's you that it's built on  
Everything can change on a new years day  
Everything can change on a new years day  
Everything can change on a new years day  
And everything changed on a new years day, c'mon_**

Suddenly Jiece caught sight of a shadowed, hunched-over figure on leaning on a wall in the back and shoved his way through the crowd towards it.

_**War within a breath  
It's land or death  
War within a breath  
It's land or death  
War within a breath  
It's land or death  
War within a breath  
It's land!**_

Their existence is a crime  
Their seat their robe their tie  
Their land deeds  
Their hired guns  
They're tha crime  
Shots heard underground round tha rapture  
Tha world's eye captured  
At last in a Mexican pasture  
Tha masked screaming land or death  
Within a breath  
A war from tha depth of time  
Who shot four puppet governors in a line  
Who shook all tha world bankers  
Who think they can rhyme  
Shot tha landlords who knew it was mine  
Yes, it's a war from tha depth of time  


The figure appeared to see Jiece coming at him, rapier drawn, and quickly skimmed along the side of the wall to the exit door, which it promptly ran out of.

_**  
Everything can change on a new years day  
Everything can change on a new years day  
Everything can change on a new years day  
And everything can change on a new years day, c'mon  
**_

Jiece followed out through the door, into the alley, and looked hastily around for signs of the multiplier. He decided that it must have dashed out into the open street and he quickly followed.

_**  
Oh, Hear the masked scream  
War within a breath  
It's land or death  
War within a breath  
It's land or death  
War within a breath  
It's land or death  
War within a breath  
It's land or death**_

It's land or death  


"Wrong way, human."

_**  
YEAAAH!  
oh, c'mon, c'mon, yes, yes, yes  
**_

Jiece looked back just as he had gotten to the entrance of the alleyway to see no less than a dozen multipliers on the other side, the lead of which held a great hammer in its hands.

_**  
It's war within a breath  
It's land or death  
War within a breath  
It's land or death  
War within a breath  
It's land or death  
War within a breath  
It's land or death**_

"Oh crap."

--

**BLAM, BLAM, BLAM!**

Rinn let go of his holding of the moving truck's rim to dodge the shots and grabbed hold of the tailgate as he flew back. The truck began to swerve ferociously as Rinn flopped into the open back. _Thank god for pick-up trucks_ he thought as he crawled his way up to the back window, laying low as to avoid more fire from the multiplier driving.

The multiplier saw him through the back window and shot again.

**BLA-CRASH!**

The shards of broken glass fell amongst Rinn's body as he clutched his shoulder in pain, curled up into the bed of the truck. _Damn!_ While recovering, Rinn heard a sound like a short, intense suction. He looked back into the now mostly-broken window to see two multipliers now in the front of the truck.

"You get the kid, I'll drive" said one; the other nodded. It began to climb out of the passenger seat window, briefly stopping to hold its balance while the driver made a sharp turn to the left. The multiplier jumped down from the roof of the car into the bed and slowly advanced upon Rinn; its black fur, flapping in the wind, blending it in with the night.

Rinn meekly stood up and tried to ignore with pain in his shoulder. Suddenly the multiplier lunged at Rinn and met him in a hand lock, clearly overpowering him. Rinn, now on the very edge of the bed of the truck, was being slowly bent backwards as the multiplier continued to lean forward, exerting almost no force.

"Any last words, boy?" It said as it pushed Rinn back until he was nearly at a 90 degree angle, leaning backwards and almost falling out of the truck onto the road speeding beneath them.

_Alright, gotta think, gotta think… let's see… SIGHT!_

Rinn's eyes grew a bit brighter in the darkness as this new ability made its move. Time seemed to slow down as his eyes took in objects around him; his brain registering what to do with them. _Metal car, multiplier's metal gauntlets, multiplier pushing me to my death, multiplier driving the car, speed bump about 30 seconds ahead of us… I've got it!_

"Just two, multiplier…"

"NUCLEAR FISTS!"

Rinn's hands quickly became a bright orange glow and grew in temperature to an intense heat. The multiplier's eyes grew wide as the metal gauntlets covering most of his arms became searing hot. "Arrgh!" He tried to pull away, though Rinn held on, making the gauntlets ever more increasingly hot, soon glowing a white brilliance. Rinn let go and the multiplier immediately abandoned the gauntlets, which landed on the floor of the car, as he jumped out; soon stopping, dropping, and rolling due to combustion via flaming metal.

The heat emitting from the white-hot gauntlets took no time at all to pas through the metal of the car, beginning the melting of the metal. The gas petal, which was pressed down to the full, was the first to burst into flames. The multiplier driving the car immediately took his foot off in pain, only to find that the floor and the petal has melted together, keeping the car on full throttle.

Rinn poked his head through the broken back window and smiled at the confused monster. "All right, I had fun, see you. Oh, and look ahead." And he promptly jumped out of the side of the car, landing in a nearby bush. The multiplier looked ahead to see a sign reading "speed bump ahead, slow down" and immediately went into panic.

This was futile, however, as the car was soon launched into the air due to excess speed, hurtling towards a large oak tree in the park to the right of the road. Rinn stood up and brushed himself off. "Well, that went well… but we gotta find the original fast."

As if on cue, a quite, repeating beeping began to sound into his ear and a very slight magnetic pull began to lightly tug him towards the center of the city. _That-a-way, huh? Right._

--

"Original, we've got a problem!"

"What is it, number 17?" The Original said as he crossed the room to number 17's station, looking at his monitor.

"Heroes sir, they're beginning to gather directly outside of the building."

"What? No! We've come too far now to be shoved aside by a group of heroes… send the troops!"

--

"What's the big deal about **this** building, in particular?" Trent asked as he approached the group, being the last to arrive at the scene. Aran immediately turned to him.

"Trent, doesn't this building look… oh, I don't know, familiar to you? With the six reactors forming a complete circle around the central power building? The green smoke?"

"Hmm… no," Trent said after studying it for a while, "well, it looks **familiar**, but I can't quite put my finger on it…"

"It's the Shinra building. An exact working model of the Shinra from the seventh miasma, Trent."

"That is right, heroes!"

Everyone looked up to see the original multiplier on the building's rooftop, clearly shown and illuminated by the light coming from the windows behind him. He cackled darkly and brought the megaphone to his mouth again, shouting across the broad stretch of walkway between him and the group. "And I won't let you stop our plan's to bring Shinra back! Numbers 326-590, eradicate them!"

The large docking bay doors opened in the front of the main building, revealing hundreds of multipliers, armed to the teeth, who began to advance in order. The heroes drew their respected weapons and readied themselves for the fight of their lives.

--

**Weak, obvious, and stereotypical cliffhanger, I know… but you should have seen the other two drafts of this chapter! I completely hated those, so I deleted both… and that is also why this took so long to make. **

…

**But I know you still want to read on. Haha.**

**It is late at night and I will be going to camp in a few days… so I'll make this quick.**

**--**

**Got Rant?**

**--**

**Today's Rant: Pokemon**

**I'll make this quick. Pokemon was originally a game… a very good one. Pokemon was actually quite the revolutionary game of its time, a very stable RPG with great replay value! Then the show came along, permanently labeling Pokemon (in America) a ridiculous toddler's concept.**

**Now pretty soon Pokemon pearl and crystal versions are coming out in 2007. Mind you, they will probably be very fun and well-made games… but I can't just go waltzing into an EB games and ask for a Pokemon game, can I? GOSH DARN YOU AMERICAN LABELING SYSTEM!**

**I will still buy a copy, regardless… I'm just saying…**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	26. Mission Earth: NY, part 5

**Well, I'm going to camp in two days, and I'll miss the lot of ya… Also, I just received a full-sized replica of the Master Sword from the Legend of Zelda game series… sweet, eh? Anywho, here you are!**

**Mission Earth: New York, part 5.**

"All right, Original, what do you want with us, then?" Astos shouted over the walkway to the Original.

"Oh it's not what I want, hero…" Original responded through his megaphone, perched on top of the Shinra building. "It's what the master wants… and what the master wants… is you! Destroy them!"

The small army of multipliers raised their respective weapons in salute. "Sir, yes sir!"

"Alright, here's the plan, guys…" Astos said shakily as the small army advanced. "If this really is the Shinra building, then all we should have to do is get up to the top floor and shut off power to the six generators. That should stop this without making a scene."

"Any other words of wisdom before we battle it out with an army of these guys?" said Rinn, crouching slightly and raising his thick redwood staff.

"Yeah… try not to leave a mess."

--

Kadaj slammed on the brakes of his bike, abruptly skidding to a halt. Loz and Yazoo soon followed his example, waiting for his actions. After about a minute, Loz spoke up. "Something wrong?" Kadaj merely smiled to him and let out a slight chuckle.

"We have guests…" There was another long silence as the sound of the wind blowing through the canyon seemed to halt along with them. "I know you're behind those boulders, you two… come out and play."

The two large boulders on either side of the path were pushed out of the way by the people behind them. One was burly, intimidating, and tall; the other was thin, elegant, and… furry.

"Well, well, well… I haven't seen you two in a while… a pity how time can beak relationships apart, isn't it?"

The muscled one stepped forward. "Time can never separate us enough, Kadaj."

Kadaj laughed at this. "Typical Gana… you always know just what to say…" he turned to the thin one. "Doesn't he Verikk?"

Verikk merely glared back.

"And to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Verikk and I have come to keep you from fulfilling your goals, Kadaj. You will not make it out of this canyon alive."

"No, Gana, old friend… it is **you** who will not make it… or shall we just let our blades do the talking?"

"Let's."

--

Rinn dived behind a steel examination table and overturned it in a desperate attempt to dodge a barrage of bullets. The countless cartridges of ammo that were emptied left thousands of dents in the table before they focused on something else. Rinn could see that Mina was making a mad dash towards the table as well. He beckoned her as she dived to join him, a bullet visibly striking her foot in mid-dive.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just a minor injury. Know any way we can get out of this?"

"Just an idea…" Rinn put his hands to the nearest surface of the metallic table. "Nuclear fists!" The table began to glow a bright orange as steam rose from the topmost edge; Mina gave him a look of inquiry. "You see," he said as he pressed his hands to the table, "my theory is that the bullets will meld into the table as soon as they come into contact with it, therefore increasing our defense."

As if solely to prove him wrong, the table began to liquefy before their very eyes. "…or melt…"

Mina abruptly stood and raised both shields in defense of them. "Any ideas now!"

Rinn thought for a second, trying to remember everything that he had learned about Mina in the past few weeks. Suddenly it came to him. "I've got it! Mina, use total defense!"

Mina crouched low to the ground as the shields unfolded themselves and became to huge semi-spheres. Mina brought them closer to herself, locking them in place to create a complete sphere of protection. Rinn slammed his staff to the ground. "Terra!"

A solid stone pillar shot up from the ground, knocking the white tiles of the hangar-like first floor in all directions, and hit the sphere on the edge, propelling it forward. Like a bowling ball, it slammed into a dozen of the multipliers and blew them in all directions.

"Terra!"

The second call sent a stone pillar to hit the ball on edge once more, sending it hurtling towards the multipliers it missed in the first sweep. Rinn continued this assault until all immediate enemies were either knocked out or flattened. Mina popped the sphere open and minimized the shields once more, staggering about like a drunk. She looked, dazed, at Rinn. "What in god's name was that for?" Upon saying this, she noticed the dead or dying multipliers all around them, Rinn smiled.

"You're welcome. Now let's get to the second floor."

--

Trent and Dieh dashed up the staircase as fast as their legs could take them; the sounds of the oncoming multipliers below slowly growing louder. "God damn their long legs!" Trent shouted. Dieh tapped the linkpearl and near-shouted in panic.

"Dieh and Trent here, we're heading up the primary staircase on the side of the building to the top floor. If anyone is a good jumper, get in here through the windows NOW!"

A minute later, Paris abruptly crashed through a large, rectangular window just a floor above them; lance prepared and ready to fight. Trent and Dieh rushed passed her. "ToomanyofthemtofightPariswehavetorun!"

Dieh reached into his robe and pulled out a green, metallic object. The egg shaped object had a pin in the top, which Dieh promptly gripped in his teeth and ripped out; tossing the green egg down the stairs a moment later. He sped up even more and pulled along the others. "Paris, can you take both of us with you in a jump?" he asked hastily.

"I think so… maybe, I don't-..."

"Well, we'll try then! Jump for your life! Trent, grab my arm!" Dieh shouted as he clutched Paris' hand tightly. Stopping only briefly to build up power in her legs, Paris rocket into the air with Dieh and Trent hanging on for dear life. A loud explosion sounded from below and the breaking sounds of metal soon followed as the staircase visibly began to fall to the ground.

Paris grabbed hold of a staircase's broken rail as the jump reached peak height and began to pull herself up, taking Dieh and Trent with her. Once all up they again frantically began to climb the stairs.

"Dieh, where did you get an exploding egg?" Trent asked.

"It's called a grenade, and I'll tell you later! We have to get to the top floor!"

The hustled trek up the steel staircase continued for some time, the pace of the heroes slowing gradually from sprinting to running to walking and, eventually, to a sluggish crawl. "For the love of Yevon…" Dieh coughed as he reached the top of yet another set of stairs, "how long does this go on for?"

"Not long…" an undisclosed voice said.

The group looked towards the voice, two levels upward, to find another multiplier; though this one was completely white instead of black, and wearing a traditional black gi. "But you won't live to see the end!" he said menacingly as he adopted a combat stance.

--

Jiece and Naru sprinted down a hallway on the third floor, every door on either wall looking exactly the same as the one before it. The echoing sounds of a legion's footsteps not far behind them. An end in the endless path was reached; two paths were split from there, left and right. Jackson came hurtling from the right side, speeding along like a deranged racehorse. "Run!"

"There's two more!" a shout from the hall Jackson hurtled from came, Jiece and Naru instinctively high-tailed it after Jackson. The three hurtled down the last remaining path, which looked exactly like all the others. With no other choice, the three all knew what had to be done.

Jiece opened a door on the left side of the hall and beckoned the others to come quickly. Barreling into the door, the three skidded to a halt in the new room. The sound of a squad's running footsteps outside was heard as Jackson, Naru, and Jiece examined their new surroundings. The room was made completely of steel and was shaped perfectly like a box. Each of the six sides of the room was split grid-like into an even 8x8 pattern.

"Peek-a-boo…" a chilling call came from all sides. A multiplier, again white-colored, appeared at the opposite side of the room from the heroes. It was marked clearly by the clown-like face paint it wore. "I see you…"

--

Gana was flung back once more as Loz's steely knuckles connected with his chest. Verikk pushed Yazoo away and jumped to catch his companion, only to have Kadaj hovering just above him, fists clenched and raised.

"Going somewhere, Verikk?"

**THOK!**

Verikk skidded across the rocky earth, his body eventually smashing into Gana's skidding form. Both looked up, dazed, to see they were surrounded by the three.

"Nowhere to run, my friends…" Kadaj said menacingly as he again drew his double-bladed katana.

Gana and Verikk both stood up, awkwardly, if anything, and raised their guards. Back to back, Verikk mentally contacted Gana. _I suppose it's time to cast off the shackles, Gana?_

_Literally, indeed._

Both warriors stood to face their foes and, in unison, put their arms in front of themselves. One by one, each bracer was removed from their arms, falling to the ground with a loud thud. Kadaj and Loz had no understanding of what was happening, but Yazoo recognized the tattoos underneath the heavy bracers. He shuffled back, stunned. Kadaj noticed his brother's awkward form and inquired.

"Something troubles you, brother?"

"Yes… we must leave."

Loz turned to look at Yazoo, the fear now apparent in his face. "What are you talking about?"

Sparing no time, Yazoo turned to run, disregarding his brothers' ignorance. _I'm sorry, my brothers…_

Kadaj and Loz, while concerned about Yazoo, knew they had a job to finish and continued the advance on Gana and Verikk. The un-shackled duo raised their respective guards, the tattoos now glowing slightly. Yazoo had reached his motorcycle at the exact moment of a combined, bloodcurdling shout oh agony from his brothers, a large pillar of black flame and wind shooting into the sky a moment later. Yazoo clambered on, drastically fearful, and wiped a tear away.

He looked back momentarily to the thick cloud of smoke, unable to take his eyes off of the resting place of his only brothers. An overpowering sorrow came down upon Yazoo as he broke down into tears, his mind completely crushed by the loss of his loved ones.

This sorrow was immediately replaced with intense horror once more as the smoke began to clear. The clearly defined shapes of two men stood there, one tall and burly, the other thin and shorter. Paralyzed, Yazoo thought inwardly if they saw him. His question was answered by a thick, black boot protruding from the smoke, stepping onto the charred ground bluntly. Slowly, the next step was taken as the other boot came to rest near the first. Soon, the coarse, red, trench coat followed; the shoulders beautifully decorated with ornate shoulder guards and beads.

_This man is not Gana…_ Yazoo said to himself.

Still slowly walking forward, the upturned collar of the trench coat was revealed, covering half of the man's face. This was followed closely by the distinctive round-rimmed sunglasses and graying hair of the man. Yazoo could only scream in his mind as Auron fully emerged from the smoke.

Not far behind, the second figure stepped forward. Another set of boots was revealed, just below the pants; strapped down to the legs tightly with multiple black belts, pulled taught. The entire upper body and most of the face was covered by a tattered crimson cloak. Paired with the unruly black hair, it was spelled out clearly to Yazoo who it was.

Not even a shred of hope passed through Yazoo's head as Vincent Valentine came to stand beside Auron.

--

**First off, I'd like to say that Hero Academy has NOT been cancelled… an explanation for lateness is written below.**

**Why is this chapter so damned late? I'll tell you why. A cinder block plus my hand. Yeah, dropped it right on there, smashed it between a cinder block and concrete. Shattered it, in fact… I was writing this chapter bit by bit, I needed to write this chapter for exercise for my hand.**

**Anyway, while progress will be slow for another week or two, Hero Academy isn't going anywhere, so stay tuned!**

**No rant due to HAND OF ENDLESS PAIN!**


	27. Mission Earth: NY, part 6

**The gods of fanfictions hate me… why? I spilled a whole glass of water on my keyboard WHILE writing this chapter, therefore losing all hope of typing anything more due to short-circuit. There was smoke and everything!**

**Anyone, hoping to get it done this time through, seeing as how I bought a new keyboard. It's sexy and black! Woo! Also, sorry about mission earth taking so long, it's just that it's so fun to write about!**

**Anyway, the thrilling close of mission earth is about to start up, so enjoy!**

Mission Earth: NY, part 6

-The arrival of surge-

"Tell me, number 1092, how are the heroes fairing?" The original asked grimly.

"Well, sir, six of them are currently in combat with the elite, while four more are stuck in the labyrinth."

--

"DAMNIT! When the hell are we going to find our way out of this place!"

"Eh, calm down Mina."

--

"Very good, number 1092… very good. Surely the elite will be able to stop them, assuming everything goes according to plan…"

"And if it doesn't, sir?" the multiplier asked meekly.

"If it doesn't? Heh, if it doesn't, number 1092, then it will be on you're head."

The multiplier swallowed nervously. "Y-yes sir."

--

Trent was slammed to the floor again as he was thrown down by the multiplier. It jumped onto the staircase railing and again surveyed its prey. Trent was down, Paris was out cold, and only Dieh remained, fleeing up the stairs towards the top floor. The multiplier quickly dashed after him, leaving the other two in the dust. Leaving them behind, however, was this fiend's biggest and last mistake.

Trent stirred weakly, barely roused enough to stand. He slowly crawled over to Paris and shook her lightly by the shoulder. "Paris? Paris, wake up… Dieh probably needs help." He took a high-potion from his reserve pack to give to Paris, realizing a moment after a certain characteristic about his fallen sword. He put the un-corked bottle next to the dragoon's semi-conscious form and examined it. Everything seemed to be in perfect order… no rust, no smudges, and no bloodstains. But then he noticed it: a long, thin crack in the weapon, going straight down the middle. Trent, horrified, tapped it; the blade instantly collapsed.

"You…"

The multiplier, high above, had just reached Dieh, who was now at the door to the top floor. A feint voice from below was heard.

"**You**…"

Just as Dieh had opened the door, the ends of his robes were caught by the claws of the elite multiplier. Neither of their attention was focused on each other, though, for the barely audible voice had become an enraged roar.

"**YOU BROKE MY SWORD!"**

The multiplier looked down the stairs where the shout came from as Dieh scampered away, slamming the door shut and locking it. "What was tha-!"

His breath and speech were instantly taken away as Trent shot into him, head first, from seven floors below. The screeching, tearing roar of the busted metal filled the near-empty staircase room as Trent left over speed send him flying into the concrete ceiling. He fell back to the ground and, seeing that the multiplier was gone, resumed his tending to Paris, still seething with sword-breaking rage.

--

Jiece flipped to the side of the room as another bolt of lightning leapt from the elite's hand. Drawing his rapier again, he lunged to the elite and prepared a stab.

The Elite stared at him in his constant smile and snapped his fingers. Immediately, the bright lights of the room dimmed considerably. At the same moment, Jiece's stab connected with the elite, and passed right through it; taking Jiece with it. He fell to the ground and looked to the elite, who giggled mirthfully. "The shadows are my sanctuary, boy…" he stuck his own hand through his non-solid body to prove his point. "You cannot hurt me now."

The lights flickered back on and the elite lunged backwards, where Naru was attempting to sneak up behind him. As his leap was about to connected, the lights dimmed again and he phased through her. Again the room became illuminated and the elite, now behind Naru, came in for the kill.

All was halted, though, as the walls opened slightly to reveal Rinn, charred and dusty from his trip through the labyrinth. He brushed himself off and called to the others inside the maze. "Hey guys, I found some of the others over here!" And he stepped through the door into the room. In about five seconds, he realized there was one extra… a clown.

"Whoa!" Rinn immediately summoned his flame and shot a short bolt at the elite. As he did so, the lights dimmed and the flame went through the elite's body. "Wha…?"

Jackson looked over to Rinn. "When the lights dim like that, everything phases through him."

"**Everything?**"

"Yeah, everything."

The lights stayed dim, though… The elite sat in the center of the room, eyes closed and head limp in a state of rest. As they waited for the lights, Rinn edged over to Naru and began to whisper something to her. After the first few words, though, the lighting returned to maximum power and the elite charged at Jackson, who parried the blow with his staff.

As Jackson attempted a counter-attack and Jiece began to strum on his lute to help the rest of the group, Naru shot up directly behind the elite, holding a lit mini-bomb. As the lights were once again dimmed, Naru pushed the bomb into the multiplier's untouchable chest. Immediately as she retracted her hand, the lights turned back on, courtesy of Rinn's lightning magic.

At maximum light power, the elite became solid once more and he began to frantically search his body, frenetically looking for an opening of some kind. Upon realizing that the bomb was sealed tight into his chest, he merely looked up at Rinn, still charging the lights. He spoke in a shaken, worried voice.

"No fair."

**KA-THOOM!**

Astos, Mina, and Aran piled in through the door that Rinn at left open, glad to see the others for a change instead of solid stone walls at every turn. There was an awkward silence that hung over the group as the newcomers stared at the elite's smoldering feet, all which remained of the monster. Astos wore a look of heavy confusion.

"What the hell happened here?"

--

10 minutes later…

--

Dieh, now joined by Trent and Paris, frantically worked with the large computer he was confronted with. For about three minutes, Dieh scanned all that had to be done and sighed. "I didn't want to do this…"

Dieh unzipped his thick summoner's robe and tossed it to the ground, revealing a completely different form. The boring, off-white robes he once wore were now replaced by a hefty grey jacket and patched blue jeans. Each of the two was covered in pockets and holsters of all shapes and sizes. Wrenches were latched to both of his hips, as though swords, and were sheathed in a flimsy metal. Dieh reached into a low-set pocket on his right leg and opened it, taking out a metal band. He then rummaged through a few pockets on his jacket before finding a green monocle; he attached the two and wore the device on his head, the monocle resting just in front of his left eye.

Trent barreled forward and rash frustration. "Alright, Dieh, why in the name of Yevon are you all of a sudden covered in pockets and throwing exploding eggs all over the place?"

Dieh turned to face Trent and spoke calmly, but with a minor haste. "Well, every man in my family, on my father's side, has been a member of the gadgeteer class, always fiddling with knobs and levers and whatnot. I was fascinated by summoning, though, so I broke the tradition and became a summoner instead. I had always been taught by my family the ways of the gadgeteer anyway, so I picked up quite a few things… I kept the idea as a backup profession in case summoning didn't go so well. And, until today, I never understood why a rather large portion of my family had such an affinity to gadgeteering."

"Well what did you discover today that changed that?"

Dieh smiled and took both wrenches out of their sheathes, briefly showing off with a small show of wrench-play, and held them firmly in place. The monocle in front of his eye shifted and turned in and out of focus briefly and began to emit a small sequence of beeping noises. "That this freakin' rocks! Now if you'll excuse me…"

Dieh connected two severed cords in the machine.

**FZAP!**

In a puff of smoke, Rinn, Mina, Aran, Jackson, Jiece, Astos, and Naru all appeared instantly, just behind Dieh, Trent, and Paris. Dieh scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Oh… Oooh, so **that's** the teleportation module… right."

The newly appeared group began to ask question, promptly answered by Trent and Paris, as Dieh continued to fiddle with the computer until finally he startled the rest with a shout.

"Eureka! I found it!" He reached deep into the internal workings of the panel and felt the cord he needed to pull. "Once I get rid of this little cord, the power should shut off." And so he ripped it.

Immediately afterwards, a large, metal disc lowered from the ceiling on the other side of the room, as did a disc come from the floor. The two conducted a short, visible, bolt of electricity before a fully-fledged beam of pure energy began to flow freely through the two, creating a florescent blue glow that overtook the now powerless room. Dieh just stared. "Alright… the power went off, but now the reserve power is all being channeled through this conductor for some reason…"

"That's right, hero…" The beam of energy briefly stopped flowing as the original multiplier made his appearance, walking across the large, floor-mounted metal disc. Once he had crossed it, the energy continued to flow. "It is the duty of the Shinra electric power company to provide energy for those who need it. To do this, we need to harvest said energy from the lifestream, the never-ending source of life that keeps this and all other planets alive.

"If demons and monsters are to once again rule this world, then the world will first have to be drained; so that would mean that we demons need this energy. We supply ourselves with a good portion of energy to sustain us and make us stronger, while the other section is used for ways to drain the planet more quickly… a self-serve plan, if you will.

"However, if pesky heroes like yourselves are going to get in the way, then there has to be a backup plan. If the power to this plant were to shut off, all the collected energy would flow back into the planet. A backup power source does not provide enough power to hold this energy, so instead we use it to channel it. The backup power channels the drained energy into a bomb located on the top of this building."

"**WHAT!"**

"The bomb is programmed to release an explosion whose force is directly equal to the amount of power it is given. So the excess power gets used up, **and** a good bit of innocent land gets leveled… wonderful, isn't it?"

Rinn, lost in blind fury, charged at the original. **"You son of a-!"**

"Rinn, no!"

The original quickly relocated itself out of Rinn's way, forcing Rinn's momentum to backfire on him as it sent him dashing straight into the power beam. In less than a second, Rinn's form completely vanished as it was lost to the staggering amount of power being channeled through the conductors. The multiplier walked back in front of the beam, a mere silhouette in front of the great source of light. Seeing the heroes were speechless in shock, the original decided to finish what he had started.

"Well then…"

**FZRRR-CKZ-BZZTRR!**

No one had time to react as the conducting device exploded into flaming shards of metal. A blinding white light filled the room as the shockwaves and clouds of dust rushed past everyone inside. Rubble flew every which way, denting the walls and the floors, as the ceiling began to fall apart from the center outwards. In the thick, clogging dust of the explosion, nobody in the group noticed the Original jump out of the room through the hole in the ceiling.

When the dust finally cleared, a sole figure stood where the conductors once stood, slumped over. As is slowly straightened out, the rest of the group began to regain their senses.

"Dude… that you?"

"Rinn?"

"Is that you, Rinn? Can you hear us?"

The last thin layer of dust died down, revealing an unknown man in black. "Rinn?" it asked smartly. Rinn stepped forward from the recently destroyed area, his robes now completely in black. The thin, black robes were contrasted by the bright lining that could be seen all around it, seemingly pulsing, as if electricity were running through it.

The bright silver zipper running from the jagged collar to the robe bottoms glistened in the moonlight shining the hole in the ceiling. The straw hat was replaced with a similar, pointed hat. Only this hat was pitch black and sleeker, the top folded backwards at the middle.

The upturned collar, framing the face appropriately, was completely disregarded as the back of the new being was examined. Six long, spider-like steel spikes, about three feet long each, were placed two by two along his back, in three rows. The new form of Rinn boldly took its stand amongst the rubble of the explosion and smirked, slight jolts of energy emitting from his eyes as he blinked.

"Who's Rinn? My name is Surge."

--

**Boo ya! Lightning trance revealed! Woohoo! Raise da roof. Everybody celebrate… and… (yawn) maybe… you… c-can… (yawn)… sleep… Zzzzz……**

**Seriously, very tired, will talk more later…**

**-Also, I have World of Warcraft now (just saying), so if anyone who reads plays, my name is Oriann and I play a dwarf hunter on the realm "Alexstrasza".**

**Cheers, Jiece.**

**Sleep time now… woo.**


	28. VOTE NOW

**WARNING- DO NOT REVIEW THIS UPDATE!**

Greetings all, it is I, Jiece. Anyway, for the final installment of Mission Earth: NY, I couldn't decide whether to make it one long, seriously bad-assed fight OR make it a minimal fight, with focus mainly on other events concerning other characters (Verikk & Gana, Yazoo, etc…).

So I decided: "Hell, I'll ask the readers!"

So please, tell me what you would like to see written in the final installment of the largest multi-part yet. Give me your answer in the form of an E-MAIL, **DO NOT WRITE A REVIEW WITH YOUR ANSWER, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SEND AN E-MAIL.**

Simply give me your answer by sending me an e-mail with your response. Option A or option B? (or maybe even a little bit of both)

Again, DO NOT review, for then you will have nothing for the REAL final mission earth: NY. This post will be replaced with the new chapter soon after I receive a few e-mails.

My e-mail address is on my profile, so send those mails! Hope to talk to ya'll again soon.

**Other methods of contact**:

instant message me on AIM, my screen name is "HueyFreeman21"

Send me a message in World of Warcraft. Server-Alexstrasza, Alliance, name-Oriann.

Tell me yourself, if you know me personally.

Call me on my cell-phone, if you know me personally.

And that said, vote now!

**AGAIN, DO NOT LEAVE RESPONSE IN THE FORM OF A REVIEW.**


	29. Mission Earth: NY, part 7

**Hello.**

**I decided that I'm way too lazy and tired to replace content in ch.28 with the final installment of mission earth, and THEN write another chapter so you all get e-mails telling you I updated. Instead, I decided to just go ahead and put this up as ch.29... ch.28 can just sit there and be confusing, I'm too tired to fix anything like that. Again, here it is... hope you like it, because it took me EIGHT different drafts to get it right... woo.**

…

**Enough said, let the battle for New York City begin!**

**--**

"Surge, eh?" Dieh asked smartly.

"Yeah, that's me. And you are?"

"Dieh Bengal, ace gadgeteer." He replied confidently.

His platform of glory was toppled, however, with a "you only **just** started the gadgeteer class!" from Trent. Dieh gave Trent a quick, angry look and turned back to Surge. The view was blocked, however, as Jiece now stood directly in front of him.

"Jiece Urashima, pleasure to meet you." He said, holding out his hand to shake Surge's.

About a minute later, after everyone had been introduced, Trent spoke up once more. "So are you an Orunitia too?"

"That's right," said Surge, "I'm actually Rinn's great-great-great-great grandfather."

"**And you're still alive!**"

"Well, sort of… you see, the "trance" factor that is naturally inherited by all members of the Orunitia kicks in when they are in life-threatening danger, right? Well, the "trance" is actually a sudden transaction of spirits between the living user of the trance, and an experienced, though dead, member of the family.

"When an element of magic is added into the equation, the spirit of an Orunitia family member who specialized in that element will be sent down from the farplane to possess the family member in danger. Thus, when Rinn hit trance **as** he was caught in the electric crossfire of that beam, I came down to take control of his body for him, thus saving him from certain death."

Trent scratched his head, as is Trent's way. "So then… how old are you?"

"456… my birthday is in three weeks." Surge said with a comical smile.

"Then-…"

**BREEP! BREEP!**

The piercing alarm sounded throughout the building as red strobe lights flashed continuously in alarm.

"What's going on?"

Dieh ran back to the computer terminal he was previously at and rapidly began to code a search for the cause of the alarm. Suddenly he stopped and his jaw dropped open. "Oh crap."

Jackson looked timidly over Dieh's shoulder. "Was that a good 'oh crap' or a bad 'oh crap'?"

"Apparently the system has a **second** failsafe… if the energy is blocked from powering the bomb; it's forcibly pushed back into the lifestream."

"That's a good thing, right? Didn't we want the energy back in the lifestream?"

"Yeah, but we can't have it pushed back in so quickly. If the harvested energy is forced in the lifestream too quickly, the process of living will be drastically sped up in this area. Years will pass by in minutes; people will age to death within the hour."

"Oh… that's not good."

"No, it's not."

Surge pushed Jackson out of the way and joined Dieh at the monitor. "Well then how do we stop it?"

"One second…" Dieh again began his frantic typing, eyes glued to the screen. "Apparently the only way to stop it is with the manual controller… which only the original has."

Everyone looked around the room for a sign of the original, each one's eyes fixed on the gaping hole in the ceiling within seconds. Surge strode over to the center of the square room and looked up into it. One of the long, metal tendrils on his back straightened out and pointed up towards the hole. After a second or two, the tendril's end bent to point to the west. Surged smirked. "I got his signal, he's heading west… where does the western road lead?"

Dieh worked at the terminal once more and turn to Surge. "Fastest way out of the city."

"I'm on it."

--

"Do we let him go?" Auron asked Vincent as they watched Yazoo ride away into the distance cloud of dust.

Vincent merely nodded in agreement and turned around to head back toward the academy, closely followed by Auron. "You realize that we can't continue to ask for help from the Great Heroes whenever we feel the need."

Auron shifted his lame arm in its sling. "The only way to defeat them with minimal injury was to ask the Great Heroes for help, which I'm sure you understand. I'd say we made the right decision."

"I suppose you're right…"

--

Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Surge had finally gone far enough to see the original making its escape. Down on the road, weaving through traffic, it was speeding along in a busted police car, evidence that the beast had first killed the officers inside. _Fiend!_ Surge thought to himself.

The original seemed to have spotted Surge and disregarded the speed limit completely, ripping through the opposing vehicles at top speed. _I'll never catch up to that!_ Surge thought. _Time to pull out all the stops…_

Surge stopped and turned to the right, towards the nearest electricity pylon, attached to a telephone pole. He jumped onto the pylon and briefly charged himself on it, then jumping to the telephone lines. The six long conductors on his back bent to act as the legs of an insect, three legs grabbing each phone line on either side of him. Nimbly, with perfect balance, the legs ran along the phone lines, three times faster than Surge could ever run. _I'm comin' you, multiplier._

Rapidly advancing towards the original, Surge noticed it was not holding onto the steering wheel. Instead, its hands were busy scribbling an incantation on a slip of paper. Hurriedly, the original set the paper aflame with the car's cigarette lighter and threw it out the window. The original punched through the empty air, towards the flailing paper, and the small flame immediately became a great, burning sphere.

The sudden, forceful explosion of fire shattered the windows of the nearby buildings and sent cars on all sides flying back into themselves and others. Surge immediately jumped into the air to avoid the blast, only to be confronted by a much larger threat. Out of the fiery prison, a gargantuan, skeletal version of Ifrit leapt out, straight towards Surge.

Just as Surge was about to be tackled into his inferno of doom, the mighty Ifrit was suddenly pulled down by something. Back on the street, Trent had pulled the beast down by the tail while Aran was holding it down with a "weight" spell. Aran looked up to Surge. "We have this covered, get the original!"

"Thanks!"

The original, assured that his skeletal minion had taken care of his electric pest, slowed down to his normal pace, leisurely escaping from the immanent doom of the area. Without warning a large dent formed in the roof of the car; shortly after, a lightning bolt shot from above and annihilated the car's engine. Surge jumped off of his perch and onto the ground, the distant wailing of Ifrit could be heard in the back round. Surge walked to the driver's side of the car. "All right, original, time's up. You have exactly ten seconds to give me that remote or I'll take it from you."

The door opened and the original came out, hands in the air, a look of defeat and shame clearly expressed on his face. Clearly expressed, of course, because only his head was displayed, the rest of his body hidden by the dark cloak that the original always seemed to wear. "Alright, hero…" he said as he took another step forward, "I'll give in."

An exact copy of the original stepped out of the car as well, hands up. "I know when I'm beaten." And he smirked. The process continued until Surge was surrounded by at least three rows of multipliers. "But do you know when **you're** beaten, hero?"

Surge shrugged and rolled up his sleeves, casually turning slowly to take in the sight of the original's futile display of power. "Just so you know…" Surge inwardly summoned up a great amount of energy, preparing for his strike. He raised his hands triumphantly to the sky. "The name's Surge!"

**ZA-CRACKA-BTHOOM!**

As the smoke from the mighty thunderbolt cleared, Surge immediately saw that no multipliers were left. One of his six steel tendrils stood on end again, pointing up towards the nearest skyscraper. Sure enough, the original could be seen scaling the building like an insect. As Surge neared the edge of the building, the original heckled him from above. "Try to get me now, hero!"

In a flash, Surge was right beside the original, having climbed the building using the steel-plated tendrils as legs once more. The original's expression went from shocked to cocky in a flash and he pulled a thin, silver object from inside his cloak. The cloak now unfastened, Surge could see that nearly every visible section of the original's arms and legs was covered in row after row of heavy, metallic bands. The original held the object away from him; "You want the remote, hero?" he said, "go get it." And with that he dropped the remote to its doom.

Surge frantically ran down the side of the building, just barely faster than the falling speed of the remote. Once he had caught up to it, Surge jumped off of the building and grabbed hold of the prize, letting gravity do the rest of the work. With a massive crash of asphalt and metal, Surge had once again made it safely to the ground. He gave the linkpearl a tap. "Dieh, I've got the remote, now what?"

"Well, it has a miniature keyboard attached to it, right?"

"Yeah, it does."

"Type in 'Overhaul33/double.safe.cancel4/Shinra…', that should do it."

There was a slight pause in conversation. "Alright, done, now what?"

"Now what? Enjoy the satisfaction of victory, Surge! Aran, Trent, and Mina are finishing the freaky Ifrit thing off as we speak, then we can rest easy."

"Alright, sounds good-!"

**SH-CRASH!**

**SH-CRASH!**

**SH-CRASH!**

**SH-CRASH!**

All around Surge, the heavy metal bands that the multiplier was wearing had fallen, creating large dents in the now empty streets. Upon closer inspection, Surge found that each band had the words "two tons" engraved in it. Surge grabbed hold of one and tried to lift it, and it indeed felt as though it were two tons.

The original, now silent and graceful, landed deftly on the ground in front of Surge. He stretched his arms and legs and began to walk to the side of the road. Once he had reached his destination, the original leaned on a large tour bus. "The winds, they are a-changing… how do you like the idea of being defeated, hero?"

"I don't like the idea, and that's why I won't let you win."

"Well we will see about that!" The original turned around swiftly and picked up the tour bus as though it were a mere pencil. Quickly and powerfully, he hurled the large vehicle at Surge, who merely smiled. As the bus headed head-first for him, he jumped upwards and through the windshield. As the vehicle continued to lurch forward, Surge sprinted down the bus's walkway, immanently reaching the back window. Surge jumped through and positioned himself for a torpedo kick, one that connected the original's face.

Quickly recovering, the original grabbed Surge's extended legs and threw him against the wall of the nearest building. Unfortunately for Surge, that building's base most mainly a few large windows for display purposes. With Surge's head smashed through the thick glass, the original grappled his face and ran his head through the rest of the window, into the cement sidewalk. "You won't let me win, huh?"

Surge disappeared from the original's grasp and reappeared behind him. He grabbed the original's right ankle and swiftly brought it outward. His stance lost, the original fell into a perfect split, his legs flawlessly straight in a 180 degree angle. "Eep!"

Surge pulled a chunk of glass out of his shoulder. "We'll see about that, huh?"

--

Jackson held on to his staff, which was jammed into the undead fire beast's eye socket, for dear life as Ifrit scurried from one building top to the other. The monster let out a piercing shriek as it bucked Jackson and his staff off of him, skidding across the cement roof. Seeing its chance, Ifrit rushed at Jackson, brandishing a fiery claw to swat his tiny opponent. Jiece, Trent, and Dieh, however, had a different plan.

Just barely arriving on time by way of the building's fire escape, Trent leapt upwards into the moonlit night. "Secret Zodiac Style: Jump of the Crane!" And came down upon Ifrit with a lighting fast downward cut, yelling "Secret Zodiac Style: Fangs of the Snake!"

Ifrit slid back a couple of feet, now determined to destroy Trent instead of Jackson. Jiece and Dieh settled themselves on the rooftop, carrying a large black box. Jiece triumphantly pulled an electric guitar from the guitar case he now carried on his back. "We had time to go shopping, hope you don't mind!" he yelled to Trent with a smart grin.

"No, I really don't," said Trent, panting, "but could you hurry it up over there?"

"Yeah, yeah… crank it to maximum, Dieh!"

"You got it."

Dieh flipped the "on" switch of the guitar amplifier he and Jiece were carrying and turned the volume dial all the way up. He gave Jiece a "thumbs up" and covered his ears. Jiece nodded. "Trent, get ready!"

Trent charged at Ifrit, sword brace for a tremendous horizontal cut. Ifrit rushed at his attacked, confident in his ability to swat Trent down like a fly. Trent dove forward with his slash at the ready; Jiece smirked and set the plan into action.

**BRRREEEEEEOOOOOOOWW!**

The massive blast of sound from Jiece's guitar gave Trent the speed of a bullet, smashing into Ifrit's sternum and knocking both of them clear off of the twenty story building they had previously been on. Trent kicked off of Ifrit, soaring into the late night air while the fallen beast sped to its demise. Trent sheathed his sword and smiled broadly. _This is gonna be so cool!_ "Fighter Technique's Triumphant Return: Epic Earth-Shaker Stomp!"

--

The effects of the transformation began to wear off as Vincent suddenly grew the ears of a Mithra. "Hmm… it's about time." His voice had changed back to its original state. Auron looked at Vincent and cocked an eyebrow.

"If your ears came back, then shouldn't something happen to me?" As if on cue, Auron's hair changed color from black to its regular fading blond. "That's more like it."

In a matter of minutes, Gana and Verikk were back to their old selves. Verikk stumbled, dazed. Gana eyed him curiously. "You alright?"

"Yes, Gana, I'm just tired… let's not do that again any time soon."

"Noted."

--

Trent's stomp had hit Ifrit directly, killing it instantly, but the stomp did not end there. The massive ground-based shockwave shot forward from there, heading directly into the office that Surge and the original were fighting in. Surge heard the approaching danger first and leapt out of the building, turning to face the original for one last item of business before he went. "Static Cling!" shouted Surge, firing a short wave of yellow light from his fists to the original. As it hit the monster, he flew back with it, slamming into the wall on the opposite side of the room. The original attempted to regain himself, only to find that he could not move; Surge had trapped him inside of a collapsing building. _That **ingenious** bastard!_

Surge landed safely on the darkened road, near the others, as the office building crumbled into nothingness. Surge dashed over to the group victoriously, his happiness dimming when he saw Dieh's gloomy face. "Surge," he said, "we have a problem… the Shinra reactor has a third failsafe… complete self destruct. While not as bad as the bomb that was originally going to go off, it'll still wipe out a good amount of this area, far beyond this city."

"**What!" **Surge roared in annoyance, "How did **that** get activated?"

"By killing the original."

"Well how do we stop it, then?" Surge asked, frantically.

"I don't know! That's the thing about this, since we can't destroy the Shinra building, there's no way!"

"What if we cut off the power to the building, would that work?"

Dieh opened his mouth to snap back, but then began to think. "Well, actually… that **would** work… but the building probably has several backup generators, so you'd have to shut those down as well."

"We can try, can't we? Let's get over there, now!" Surge shouted as he sprinted back to the building, a few blocks away; the others followed. About half way there, the group heard the intercom system of the Shinra network blaring out a warning message.

"**Self Destruct imminent, 40 seconds."**

Surge skidded to a halt in front of the towering mass of concrete and steel, pacing rapidly. Suddenly it came to him; "Trent, toss me your sword!"

Trent unsheathed his blade and threw it at Surge, who caught it and jammed it into the wall of the building. Dieh eyed Trent awkwardly. "I thought you broke your sword a few hours back, how do you-?"

"A good fighter always has a backup sword, Dieh."

"**Self Destruct imminent, 25 seconds."**

Surge wiggled the blade up and down, left and right, but could not get it to dig any deeper into the wall. He let go and stepped back shakily. "It's no use, the blade is too short to reach the inner wiring inside of the walls… we aren't going to make it!"

Paris bravely took the stage and stabbed clean through the wall with her spear, which dug in far past Trent's sword. "Use this!"

"**Self Destruct imminent, 10 seconds."**

Surge grabbed hold of the spear and shut his eyes. "Get ready for this, and be sure to cover your eyes!"

"**Self Destruct imminent, 6 seconds."**

Dieh ran up to Surge. "What's the holdup? Go, go, go!"

"**Self Destruct imminent, 5 seconds."**

"It's taking a while to cast this with so much concrete and buffering in the way, give it a second!"

"**Self Destruct imminent, 3 seconds."**

Astos came up to the other side of Surge. "We really only **have** a second!"

"Don't you think I'm trying!" snapped Surge, "Hold on for a moment!"

"**Self Destruct imminent, 2 seconds."**

"A moment is all we have; we have to do this now!"

"**Self Destruct imminent, 1 second."**

"Almost there…!" said Surge through clenched teeth.

"Oh god!"

"We're screwed!"

"Surge, now!"

"Jesus no!"

"I'm too young to die!"

"I'm too sexy to die!"

"She's too sexy to die!"

"**Goodbye."**

"Got it!"

**BZZZRRTT!**

Everything went black for the group of heroes, literally. Once their eyes adjusted, they found that not only was the explosion stopped, all power to the entire city had been completely shut off. Trent blinked a few times, confused. "Wait, wasn't there supposed to be a giant, mind-blowing explosion or something?"

"Oh, there was, you just couldn't see it; it was all underground, where all of the main wiring and computing is done."

"Well **that** was a rip-off."

"Hey, if you'd **like** to be blown apart into thirty pieces, I'd be more than willing to do it for you."

--

The master was brooding in his throne when five men appeared before him, all hooded in tattered, brown robes. At first he did not see them; he was too busy thinking about what to do next with Kadaj and Loz gone.

One man stepped forward and bowed. "We volunteer, master."

The master abruptly looked up and saw the five. "What are you talking about, Deaf?"

"I heard what you were thinking, master; you need someone to finish what Kadaj started… we volunteer."

The master considered this offer and smiled slightly. "The Sense Five working on what my previous lackeys could not accomplish? It's a bit of an overkill to send you five, but I suppose it does not hurt to be too careful, yes? You leave at dawn."

Deaf bowed again and the five walked out of the presence of the master. The Deaf smirked in success as he was closely followed by his four companions: The Blind, The Numb, The Mute, and The Paralyzed.

--

**I apologize SO much for how horribly late this is, seriously. School started back up a few weeks back, my computer crashed, AND my after-school schedule is getting more and more cramped as I continue through the year, please forgive me.**

**Now that I'm somewhat on top of things, I hope to keep up a steady stream of updates from here on out, perhaps about a week apart each; sound good?**

**Anyway, I am ridiculously tired right now, so I'm going to take a nap or something… rant in next chapter.**


	30. A Trivial Task

**2sidez, PokeMarioFan, and Decessus, I believe you will have a particular interest in this chapter. Especially you, 2sidez… your character is very fun to write for.**

**A "trivial task": the preparation of the Braska dorm!**

"All right, let's try the thunder flash one more time." Sergin said, brushing his sweat-laden bangs out of his face.

"Oh come on, Sergin…" Kutota said, exhausted, "I don't know how many more times I can do that without passing out!"

"That's why I said **one** more time, Kutota." Sergin snapped.

"Sheesh, you two have it easy… **I'm** the one who has to do all the work for the move." Crystal leaned knowingly on her staff.

"Crystal, Kutota, I'm tired too, but you two can't honestly be ready to quit when there's so much at stake."

"For the love of Yevon, Sergin," said Kutota, "**you** may miraculously be able to put up with seven straight hours of training, but **I **can't! I could probably say the same thing for Crystal, too!"

"You got that right."

"All I'm trying to say," Sergin began as he eyed the two with quiet annoyance, "is that we have to get as much practice in as possible so we can beat the Leonhart dormitory in next week's grudge match."

Kutota waltzed over to Sergin and sarcastically threw an arm around his shoulder. "Sergin, Sergin, Sergin… you said so yourself that the only reason they survived the tower of power was because of Rinn's fire trance. What are the chances of something like that happening again, right?"

Reluctantly, Sergin pushed Kutota off of him and smirked. "Fine, we can go… I guess I **am** going a bit paranoid about this. But we're doing this again tomorrow, no complaining."

"Ergh… fine, Sergin… fine."

"Should I kill myself now or later?"

--

Earlier that week, the morning after the heroes' return to the academy, Rinn awoke to a shocking surprise. It being a Saturday, the dorm had slept in late, everyone waking up somewhere from ten to eleven-thirty AM. Upon awakening, Rinn found that the room was at least twice as large as it had been before, and a huge mass of wiring, metal, and plastic was heaped up on the wall left of the door, opposite Rinn, Trent, and Aran's beds.

Rinn's normal instinct would have been to freak out and question everything in frenzy, but the fact that he had just woken up paired with the fact that this sort of thing seemed to be getting common eased him. Rinn lazily stepped from his bed and stretched, slowly making his way to the mass of technology.

Suddenly the door swung open and a couch purged through the space, being pushed by Trent. Trent and the couch were closely followed by a large armchair, being carried by… Trent? Trents came through the door in a steady stream, each one carrying some kind of addition of furniture or technology into the room and placing it near the wiring heap.

Dieh stepped out from behind a giant television mounted on the wall and brushed himself off. He saw Rinn and cocked an eyebrow. "Impressive, huh?"

"What exactly is it that I'm supposed to be impressed with?" Rinn mused.

Dieh walked over to Rinn and turned to the mass of metal and wire, facing the same way Rinn was. He put his hands in his pockets and grinned triumphantly. "It's a state of the art, top of the line, brand new, high quality home entertainment theatre."

"And where in the name of Odin did you **get** something like this?"

One of the seventeen Trents began to walk up to Rinn and Dieh, looking over to Aran halfway there. "Hey Aran, we're done moving the stuff, cancel the multiply spell."

Aran was laying face-down in his bed, burying his face in one of the large pillows, his hair askew. Apparently Aran had a very rude awakening that morning. He raised a hand and snapped, to which 16 Trents vanished in small puffs of smoke. Trent rudely swung his arm over Rinn, leaning comically on him. "Well, let's just say that we took a shopping trip before we came back here."

As if on cue, Naru walked through the door carrying a mountain of assorted plastic bags from different stores. "Indeed we did."

Trent was about to speak once more when Dieh held a hand directly in front of him for silence. "Wait, Trent… where's the porta-vortex?"

"The who?"

"The miniature, portable vortex that creates a constant wormhole connecting the dimensions of Earth and Graphia using semi-inaudible vibrations of… er… you know what? Easy version: it's the swirly circular thing back where all the rest of the stuff was."

Trent's jaw fell. "You mean **all the way** back in the portal room?!"

"Yes, Trent. Fetch."

"Eh… fine… but I call first dibs on Halo when we hook up the X-box."

--

"Sergin, I have some bad news for you…"

Sergin was casually napping when he heard this being said. He looked up to see Khrii, his white-haired dormitory advisor. Khrii flipped a few pages on the clipboard she was holding before handing it to Sergin. Sergin sat up and took it, noticing the page Khrii had turned to was his transcript. She pointed to a section of the paper.

"You see, you haven't reached your weekly good deed quota this week, and the consequences are pretty bad if you don't fulfill basic hero duties."

Sergin handed the clipboard back to Khrii and lay back down. "What does it matter? I've got the whole rest of the week, right?"

"Sergin, by school time, a new week starts on Saturdays at noon… you have thirty minutes."

Before Sergin had time to bolt upright and shout "WHAT?!" as would be expected, Crystal and Kutota both yanked him off of his bed and forcibly tossed him out of the room.

"If you fail, then we fail, Sergin! Get out there and **do something nice** for once!" Crystal shouted after him.

--

23 minutes later…

--

Sergin wandered aimlessly around the halls. _Everyone seems to be getting along fine by themselves... _he thought as he passed through yet another archway into the courtyard. _I just have to find something… some trivial task to complete… but what?_

As luck would have it, Trent was already halfway through the courtyard, dragging along a large, wooden crate, labeled: "Porta-Vortex DX 3000!" From what Sergin could tell, the box must be reasonably heavy, judging by the long, slow pace of Trent's box-dragging.

_Oh, sweet lord, thank you. _Sergin thought as he dashed over to Trent. Trent saw Sergin coming towards him and immediately dropped what he was doings and put his hands in the air. "I didn't do it, I swear!"

"What? No, no, I was wondering if I could give you a hand with that."

Trent looked back at the giant crate and smiled when he turned to Sergin. "It's really not that heavy actually… I'm just making it look like that so that my roommate Dieh will feel bad about making me go get it alone."

Sergin glanced quickly at the clock tower, seeing that he only had three minutes left. He would have to make this quick. "Here's an idea… how about if I take this back to your room **for** you, and tell your roommate that you collapsed of exhaustion trying to pull it, so you I volunteered to do it?"

Trent considered this for a moment, and then snapped his fingers. "Or you could say that I **died** of exhaustion, that'd be even better!"

…

…

"Yeah, sure, that works too… so how about it?"

"Sure! Just take it over to the Leonhart dormitory in the southwest corner of the third floor, and then tell the story."

"Right."

--

Crystal and Kutota fumed silently on one of the balconies overlooking the courtyard. Down below, Sergin heaved the crate above his head and ran off into the academy. Kutota cracked in knuckles in agitation. "Sergin doesn't even break a sweat making **us** do all of that back-breaking training, but he doesn't even have to do anything hard to get to his quota of good deeds… why is it that these things come so easily to him?"

Crystal grinned evilly. "I know we shouldn't… but maybe we **should** make it hard for him."

Kutota turned around from his balcony view and leaned back on the railing. "Are you saying we make such a trivial task a heavy burden for our friend?"

"Well, he **is** kind of an ass about the training and stuff… a little karma never hurt anyone."

Kutota's face shifted to match Crystal's smirk. "You were right about one thing: we really shouldn't."

"…But?"

"But we totally have to." Kutota laughed.

--

As Sergin walked into the last broad hallway until the Leonhart dorm, he stopped cold… literally. His feet became cemented to the ground by thick, shimmering ice that crawled up his leg up to the knees. He dropped the crate and reached down to pull out his feet when he heard an angry growl. Sergin looked up to see a pack of wolves encircling him, slowly walking towards him. Sergin mentally slapped himself in the face and sighed. "You have got to be kidding me…"

Back over at the clock tower, the hammer started to pull back to hit the bell, which would mark the strike of noon. The first click of the hammer's pullback was always loud; if you were close enough to the tower, you could here the first click and know that in exactly one minute, the bell would be struck.

Sergin barely heard the click of the hammer. _One minute left… I don't have time for this._ And he sprinted through the hall, closely followed by the wolves. His feet landed heavily with every step, still sporting a rather large amount of ice on each boot.

--

"The ice was a nice touch… it gives the wolves a chance." Kutota grinned at crystal as he spoke.

"Thanks. Where **did **you get a pack of wolves, anyway?" Crystal responded, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, they're just illusions… the kit came from a joke shop back from where I used to live… I thought I might have a use for them one day."

"Well, I guess you found a use then, huh? Kinda sucks that you don't have more."

"Oh, I do… the kit comes with 1,000 wolves… it was a value pack."

"Nice."

--

1 minute later…

--

Sergin walked into the Braska dorm room shirtless and scratched, panting. The ice had thinned around his feet, but had also spiraled up to his belt. He flopped down on his bed and sighed deeply. Kutota and Crystal both sat down on the side of his bed and high-fived silently.

"Karma's a bitch…" Sergin muttered before either of them could have said anything. "But so will be tomorrow's training… very funny, guys. Was it really worth it?"

Kutota sat down on Sergin's back while Crystal lifted up his head and looked at his scarred face.

"More worth it than you will ever know." Said Kutota.

"What he said."

--

**Here you go guys. Tell me, e-mail me, or IM me if I portrayed a character wrong and it annoys you, I'll fix it. Other than that, look forward to more hero academy in the future.**

**I would also like to add that "The Prestige" is a wicked awesome movie. Go see it… now.**

**--**

**If I said RANT, would you believe me?**

**--**

**Today's rant: Next-gen consoles number 3.**

**Alright, here's the deal… sony finally lets game stores sell pre-order slots for the PS3, and then they sell out within 20 minutes. **

"**Fastest-selling console ever." –Sony**

**Fastest because there were GROSSLY FEW consoles to sell… that amount of products they had to sell was ridiculously small… WTF?**

**The Wii also sold out quickly, but they sold so quickly because THEY WERE AWESOME. Nintendo had copious amounts of Wiis to sell, and sell they did.**

**Unfortunately, I still do not have one… phooey. **


	31. Valentines in October

**Thank you for your kind words of kindness. The continuation of Hero Academy beings in… wait, wait for it… one second… hold on for a second, it's almost… here… waaaaaaaaiiiiiitttt… there we go. Now.**

The romance that you've all been waiting for…

The following Monday, Rinn strode merrily out of the academy, breathing in the early morning air. The yellow-white sun just barely peaked over the horizon, shining through the greenhouse. Rinn pulled up a wall of stone from the ground and settled himself leaning on it. He put his staff to the ground and folded his hands, admiring the sight.

_I still can't believe I'm actually here… where real heroes are born… _Rinn thought drearily. _I could be among some of the greatest heroes to ever walk this earth. _

Rinn absent mindedly turned to look around, taking in the scene around him. The leaves on the trees were a vibrant mix of red, yellow, and orange; they coated the ground in a rustic fashion. The breeze blew through the weakening branches of the trees, shaking them with a hint of bitter chill. Rinn's eyelids slowly grew heavy as he began to fall into slumber, when a sudden weight on the rim of his straw hat woke him.

Rinn took the edge of the rim and pulled it down to get whatever had landed on him to slide off. He was surprised, though, when an azure blue lump fell into his lap. He picked it up to look at it, and was met by the innocent gaze of Gale.

Gale let out a meek chirp and nuzzled Rinn. Rinn could only laugh at the cuddly little fire-breather. "Aw, aren't you just the cutest little fire breathing reptile ever?" Rinn glanced around quickly to find where she had come from; giving up, he turned back to Gale. "Well, we should get you back to Paris, huh?"

Rinn forced the block of stone back into the earth with a wave of his hand, to which Gale yipped in surprise. He began to walk back to the academy; Gale perched on the point of his hat, and saw a thin form take a few hastened steps out of the arch of the entrance. _There she is… _Rinn thought as his sight confirmed that it was Paris. She looked briefly in all directions, obviously looking for her missing pet. Rinn waved a hand to get her attention.

"Over here."

Paris saw him and sighed with relief. Gale hopped off of Rinn's hat onto Paris's shoulder as the two met. Paris patted Gale lovingly and smiled. "Don't you get lost like that again." She turned back to Rinn and immediately re-adopted her usual look, looking slightly towards the ground awkwardly. "Thanks…" she said, "for finding her."

Rinn unintentionally grew a bit red in the face and averted his look, now slightly to Paris's left. "It's no problem… I was just meditating a bit and, uh, found her."

"Oh! I hope you weren't disturbed."

"Oh no, no, I had only just sat down…"

By this time they had both looked back at each other and the thickness of the uneasiness was staggering. Paris laughed slightly and shifted. "Well, you'll probably want to be left back to your meditation, then, I'm sure." She had just turned to leave when Rinn finally summoned up enough courage to do the impossible.

"Care to join me?"

--

Rinn and Paris had both taken seats on either side of the large, reddening tree on the edge of the lake. Gale flew and crawled playfully through the branches while they sat. Rinn started it off. "So… how are things going as a dragoon?" _Aw, god freakin' damnit… what kind of conversation starter was that?_

Paris was able to reply with a bit more confidence this time; not having to look directly at Rinn helped speaking quite a bit. "About as well as any other class's training is going… though it does have some downsides."

"Like what?"

"To start, this braid that I have to wear my hair in is really annoying… once it got long enough, it started to whip around whenever I do any serious physical work; so sometimes it'll hurt." _Why in Yevon's name did I say that?_

"Can't be any worse than the black mage hat… It gets really hard to focus when your head is constantly itchy." _That was probably the dorkiest thing I could have said…_

To his surprise though, Paris laughed at what he had said. "I suppose everyone has some kind of hindering then, huh?" _I sound like an idiot…_

Rinn welcomed the lightened atmosphere with gusto and let forth a slight chuckle of his own. "Yeah, I guess so…" _I sound like an idiot…_

Again silence embraced the two, interrupted only by Gale's occasional chirps of joy. Time began to pass, noticeably, as a few leaves dropped from the richly colored foliage above. Neither Rinn nor Paris could think of anything more to say; and once again an air of awkwardness reigned supreme over the two. Thankfully, a gust of wind blew through the trees, rattling the leaves and twigs, one of which fell from the tree on the ground between them; Rinn thought of something to say.

"So… it's getting kind of cold, huh?"

"Yeah… it really starts to cool down in the middle of fall, huh?"

Rinn smiled inwardly at his success in re-kindling the conversation. "Is it really mid-fall already? Time just flies by… heck, the Halloween Haunt is tomorrow, right?"

"You mean the dance?" Paris had completely forgotten about the Halloween festivities the academy had planned for the next day.

"Yeah, the dance." _Wait… crap! That's a couple's dance! What in the world made me bring that up?! But, then again… would it be too soon to see if she would go with me?_ "You, uh… going… with anyone?"

Paris froze as her face briefly grew to be a brilliant shade of red. _Is he seriously going to ask that? Thank god I didn't have to be the one to ask… that would've been unbearable…But wait, what if Rinn isn't actually trying to get to that… ergh, it's no use questioning now. _"N-no, I… I'm not, er… g-going with anyone…" _You really need to ask me out._

"Oh, really? Well, maybe…" _I really need to ask you out._

"Yeah?"

"Well…"

**THA-DONG!**

Both students bolted upright at the sound of the bell signaling for class to begin. At first, both were glad to have an excuse to leave the situation, but then regret began to settle in as they said their goodbyes and walked off in opposite directions. Rinn mentally slapped himself and a few steps away from the tree. _It's either now or never, Rinn… this is the perfect opportunity. _He turned around to see Paris a good many meters away and ran to catch up. "Paris, wait!"

Paris turned, inwardly hopeful, and put on a face of inquiry. "Yes?"

Rinn reached Paris and stopped, regained himself briefly. "I was wondering, if… uh, you might want to… g-go to the dance with me?"

_Yes!_ Paris wanted to shout with joy, but was only able to speak a much less impressive agreement. "Sure, Rinn… that'd be nice."

"Great! So… I guess I'll see you later, then?" _Hell yeah, I did it! Go Rinn! Go Rinn! Uh-huh, all right, woo-feckin'-yeah!_

"Yeah, see you."

--

Jiece and Naru sat up on the parapets above where Rinn was initially sitting. "I am Jiece, lord of love!" he shouted.

"Nice job getting them to talk to each, even if your ways are... unorthodox." Naru said with a smile.

"Oh really? What was so unorthodox?" said Jiece, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, for starters, I don't think Gale really liked it when you dropped her onto Rinn from the balcony."

Jiece shrugged sheepishly. "It was the best way I could think of to get those two within fifty feet of each other."

"Whatever you say, oh lord of love."

--

**Well, that was me taking a whack at some Rinn/Paris relations, after much stalling. Overall, I think I got my point across… though I might have rushed it a bit. Well, in any case, I have some writing to get done if I want to finish the next chapter by the end of the week. Till next time…**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	32. The Reawakening of Evil

**I fell like I have too much going on for the heroes… so I'm going to take a brake from Rinn's perspective on things for this chapter. If you're a fan of brutal, awesome-ish combat, please enjoy this chapter.**

Awakening of evil… again…

It was a pale, misty morning when the anti-saint's cathedral was disturbed for the second time. With an earsplitting shriek of snapping metal, the two-story-tall iron doors were thrown off of their hinges and collapsed before the dusty, webbed altar. A group of five men entered the black abyss from the lush fields outside, stepping onto the stone floor now bathed in the morning's light. Spires of obsidian and bone protruded from either side of the huge area's walls. The unfortunate bodies of those who had followed the age-old congregation of hell hung loosely on those spires, impaled or otherwise.

The foreman of the group took the lead, shaking, and stepped into the bleak, macabre ruins. After a mere three steps, a sound was heard faintly by the five men. The barely-audible sound was unable to be understood at first, it was too quite. But it was repeated, though still quite, audibly.

"_What do you want…?"_

The group of five turned swiftly around, where the noise had come from. Nothing but the image of the land from which they had come was there to greet them. The whisper sounded once more, just barely qualified as a whisper, in another direction.

"_What do you want…?"_

The foreman once more drew a deep breath and made a few fleeting motions to two of the four men behind him. They nodded and silently cast their respective fire spells onto a dim beacon in the center of the room. The fire struck the kindling in the oval-shaped enclosure, bringing the only light available into the room. Just barely illuminating an area of about a meter from the source, the torch was near useless. Just as the group was set to proceed, the torch went out with the sound of someone's quick breath; once again heard as the slightest sound.

Out of nowhere, eight black globes of flame appeared around the beacon and began to circulate around it, similar to the movement of an atom. A thin, black shape became slightly illuminated in the center of the orbiting globes. The form raised a hand and they discontinued their movement to slowly fan out to the eight upper corners of the octagonal room. The whisper came back, louder this time; with it came the bitter chill of the horrors of which the speaker had committed.

"What do you want…?"

Shivering slightly at the entrance, the leader of the group once more regained himself. He stood straight and unraveled a scroll that he took from a pouch on his side. He held it in front of him and spoke clearly.

"A message from his royal majesty, the Grand King Aerolian XII:

"Receiver of this message, you are hereby placed under arrest on the charges of every crime punishable by law of the human continent. You have every right to appear in the court of law to plead your case, though it is doubtful that you will leave as a free man. The punishment for the crimes that have been set upon you can only be death, for which you are hereby being arrested for. May Yevon have no mercy on your wretched soul…"

Just before the final word was spoken, the orbs of black flame reached their destinations and set the eight corner-torches of the cathedral ablaze, giving the monolith of hell its undeserved light. The form was revealed; a thin, mid-sized man stood where the beacon was. His grey-black hair fell down to his mid-chest, tied into a braid in the back; held together with small fragments of bone. The looming, blackened pauldrons of the man stood curved and vicious, like the spires along the walls. Across the hellish figure's chest was a black sash, holding the midsection of his full-body length robe tight to his body, both of which were trimmed with gold.

Most horribly of all, though, was the huge, bloodied steel disc that was mounted to his back. A complete circle of black, jagged metal, it had chains tied all around it. Venomous-looking black hooks were found at the end of these chains, clinging in their holsters to the rest of the disc. Bits of flesh and muscle still clung to these morbid sickles, remainders of the thousands they had killed. The hundreds of sickles holstered to the disc framed the morbid figure in all of his dark glory, resounding his name as the foreman spoke the last word of his document.

"Alucard."

Alucard smiled crookedly at the five. "Well, well, well…" the frosty voice once again shook the spines of the five men as he spoke, "do what do I owe the honor of being confronted by the elite squadron of the royal guard?"

"You have been accused and proven guilty of every crime and offense punishable by the fullest extent of the law in the human continent, Alucard… It must be stopped." The foreman drew his twin blades, hilts held together by a chain, from the sheathe mounted to his back. "And I, Bartholomew Artemis Cedric, captain of the elite royal guard of Graphia, am here to do so. I find it only fair to warn you that my friends and I are equipped with our favored weapons and armor."

Alucard nearly burst out of his skin laughing. The maniacal cackle bounced off of the walls all around the hollow horror of the anti-saint's cathedral. "You think that you can defeat me, Cedric? How amusing… I'll make a bargain with you, Mister Cedric… if I can't defeat you five in three offensive maneuvers, I'll go quietly. Demon's oath, I swear it." Alucard raised his mortuous hand and formed the demon's oath sign. Often used in demon versus demon duels, breaking the demon's oath would resign that unfaithful demon to 10,000 years in the ninth level of the underworld.

Bartholomew brushed back his family's trademark crimson hair and aggressively stepped forward. "Challenge accepted! Men, if you fear for your lives, I won't hold anything against you if you turn back."

"We're behind you all the way, Captain Bartholomew!"

Alucard suppressed another cackle of satanic mirth and dropped from his high point on the beacon to be on level ground with the group. He smiled, "let's even the playing field, then, shall we?" Alucard snapped his fingers; immediately the lights went out. Four brief flashes of light in the black abyss startled Bartholomew. When the lights came back on, the bloodied, mangled, and butchered corpses of his squadron lay directly in front of him. A slight moment later, the sound caught up with the lightning fast attack, and the horror could be heard.

**KLSH! B-KZING!**

"AAARRRHGGH!!"

**SCHLRRT!!**

"HELP ME-EEERRRGGHAAHH!!"

**KRSCHLP! KRSCHLP! KRSCHLP!**

"No, please! Don't! God NO!"

Alucard brushed his hands off on his robes and cocked an eyebrow in Bartholomew's direction. "Two maneuvers left."

"You GOD FORSAKEN BASTARD!" Bartholomew lashed out at Alucard, stabbing him directly through the heart. Purely in rage and spite, he twisted and shifted the blade forcefully in the cavity that it had found. Alucard smirked and grabbed Bartholomew's hands, pulling them away from the hilt of the sword, which was buried deep in his own chest. He raised his other hand, in which was a beating heart.

"I suppose you were aiming for this?"

Bartholomew pulled his sword out of Alucard and jumped back, stunned. Alucard let the heart drop to the floor and stomped it flat in one conjoined movement. "Now then… shall we play our game?"

"I don't want to play any games with you, Alucard, give me all you've got!"

"Fine… it's your death."

Alucard turned and ran farther into the chapel, closely followed by Bartholomew. The six columns on either side of the pews began to crumble slightly at Alucard's will, and bits of the rock flew at Bartholomew. As they reached the area, Alucard leapt up and jumped off of one of the pillars; Bartholomew attempted to follow, only to be hindered by the flying rock.

Alucard ripped a large chunk of stone from its column and hopped on it as it was flung down to his opponent. Bartholomew countered the first several rocks, knowing Alucard was just around the bend. He jumped through the dusty, stale air of the cathedral and saw a particularly large rock heading towards him. _That's the one!_

Once it reached him, Alucard leapt off to attack, only to find Bartholomew already behind him. "Gotcha!" he shouted as he let his chain-sword cut through the body of his nemesis. The body collapsed to the ground and began to smoke. As the smoke flowed, Alucard's image faded, revealing the now cleaved body of Bartholomew's squadron partner. _An illusion!_

He looked wildly around him to try and find Alucard, and did… he found twelve of them. Each was beside one of the pillars that surrounded him; at least twenty sickles were dug into each column, ready to bring it down. Alucard's expression remained in its sickly joyous state as he once more taunted his opponent. "It looks like you're more or less hopeless, then, hm?"

"Wouldn't you like to think so!"

"Indeed I would!"

Each of the twelve Alucards pulled their pillar down jumped into the fray of the rubble soon to crush Bartholomew. He had a different plan, though. "Aeroga!"

A vortex of wind focused itself solely and completely in the hulking mass of debris. Slowly, it rose up as Bartholomew commanded it to, now hovering just above the cathedral in a great, swirling mass of stone and metal. Bartholomew jumped up through the gaping whole in the roof to stand on the surface of it. He looked up into the giant tornado and braced himself. _This is it… somewhere in there is Alucard… well, twelve of them, anyway… I train in storms all of the time; now I have the upper hand._

Bartholomew rocketed up into the hurricane of rubble and was immediately confronted by a mass of whirring chains and sickles. Alucard appeared behind him and arm-locked him; a second followed it up with a headlock. Bartholomew felt the jagged metal dig into his ankles as two chain-sickles wrapped themselves around them. Completely bound, Bartholomew struggled in futility. A third Alucard walked slowly on the air in front of him, approaching him.

"And you thought I would need three moves? HA!"

"You'll need more than that, Alucard!"

Bartholomew angled his legs to get his feet to his back, therefore stabbing both of the Alucard's holding him still with the sickles. Now loose, he rapid-span himself free and once again drew his blades. "Evil can no longer hold me down!" he shouted, cutting through the two. He turned back around to find the third, but found nothing except a large chunk of stone being thrown directly at his face. Bartholomew jumped into it and cut the monolith in half, catching sight of his prey, heading for the eye of the storm.

Following the Alucard clone, he bounded from one chunk of rock to another. Just as he was about to reach it, countless sickle-chains came from all directions, clinging to the rotating rocks all around him. The giant mass of spinning chains continued to spin around Bartholomew, while their owners remained stationary. Thus, the gaps between the chains grew smaller and smaller as they became entangled in one another. The prison of chains and blades soon shrunk to a size that could barely accommodate Bartholomew's tall form. The gaps in between the wall of conjoined metal disappeared as Bartholomew became enclosed in a rapidly shrinking sphere.

Alucard hovered above the eye of the storm, watching his clones do his work for him. The chains had become fully entangled and no longer had any spare room; instead, the chains were now shaped like Bartholomew himself, slowly shrinking. The form was forced into a sitting position, follow by a fetal position, and then…

**SCWELCH!**

Streams of blood oozed from the tight-knit sphere of metal and the tornado stopped. Alucard snapped his fingers, banishing his clones, and landed. "It seems I am not welcome here… though, now no one in this area will dare come after me… how boring."

…

"….I guess I'll just have to move on to another area where they aren't afraid to take me on… that'll be good for a laugh." Alucard looked at the bleeding mass of chains on the ground and thought out loud. "Bartholomew Cedric, huh? I wonder if he had a relative in the hero academy…"

--

**And that just about wraps it up. Don't mess with Alucard, he'll cut you! Anydangway, for those of you who miss rants (I see "no rant?" written in a review every now and again), I don't know when I do those… it's just kind of an "I feel like it" thing.**

**Sorry, anyway… bye!**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	33. The Adventures of Trent: episode 3

**Greetings, loyal viewers! Welcome to another fun-filled episode of Hero Academy. To save you time from reading the whole chapter, I'll just go ahead and summarize it for you: cool stuff happens.**

**If you still want to read, be my guest.**

The frivolously misdirected adventures of Trent, episode three.

Trent Cedric was one of the simple folk. He dressed himself each day in his casual attire; pants on one leg at a time. Trent enjoyed the things that many other people did, and he was generally considered to be a good, well-rounded person. Recently, though, Trent had joined a group of eight others when he was accepted into a grand boarding school of mighty warriors and sage wizards: The Hero Academy. After a wild encounter with all sorts of strange and new customs, items, and persons in another dimension known as "earth", Trent got a taste of something that would delight and appease him for many, many days to come.

Trent and one of his friends, Dieh, had brought some of this something back to their home dimension of Graphia, and immediately indulged themselves into it. This something, you ask? Video games, plain and simple. The two had been at it for quite a while now, utilizing every bit of spare time to play these games. Dieh, being a dashing, young gadgeteer, invented a few devices over time to enhance the game-play: motion-sensing gloves, 3-D display, virtual-reality goggles, and more.

Trent spent many hours diligently memorizing the complex maneuvers and combination of button-pushing and movement to achieve the most out of his fun, and began to see how many of the results of such worked. The characters on the screen would do things so insane and amazing that people of our caliber would never even dream of attempting of doing things like that. Trent, however, thought the same thought over and over: _I could totally do that…_

Little did he know that events had been set into motion that would lead him to unlocking the ultimate power of his mortal coil… events that would begin to turn the cogs of destiny, starting on this very day.

--

Trent flipped the power switch on "the tower"; a fusion of every game console known to man, created by Dieh. In it, every game that the two had purchased with Trent's massive earthly funds had been permanently downloaded into the library, and backed up and a few extra hard-drives. He picked up the headset that he used play and carefully put it on, quickly checking if everything was in working order. Unfortunately for him, the wireless device was out of batteries.

"Rinn, can you give me a hand, here?"

Rinn looked up from the 3000+ page book he was reading on the couch just to the left of Trent. He bookmarked and closed it, tossing it aside. "What do you need?" he said with a slightly agitated tone, disrupted from his reading.

"Just give this thing a boost, would ya?" Trent handed his black mage friend the headset.

Rinn looked quizzically at the technology, fumbling a bit with the device. "How exactly do you want me to do that?"

"Y'know… think of something. Like, uh… zap it with some lightning."

"Trent, this thing runs on regular electricity… I use magical lightning. Besides lightning being hundreds of times more powerful than a steady supply of electricity and made of pure energy… it's comprised on otherworldly magic, and we have no idea what could happen to this equipment."

Trent lowered his eyelids slightly and cocked an eyebrow. "Rinn, since when do I care about not knowing things?"

Rinn sighed and put the headset on the ground, taking a step back from it. "You're right… **thunder!**" Giving it to Trent, he sat back down on the couch with his dictionary-like book. Trent hastily threw the headset on and selected "Halo 2" from the tower's menu. Once the game was loaded, Trent selected to play the last level of the game, briefly turning back to Rinn as he confirmed his choice.

"Thanks Rinn, I owe y-!"

**SHA-VOIP!**

Trent vanished in a whirlwind of green ones and zeros, the controller and headset clacking to the floor as he did so. Rinn once more monotonously lowered his book and looked directly at the readers. "Well who didn't see that coming?"

--

Master Chief stood tall in his grand, battle-worn green armor. The Spartan surveyed his surroundings one last time and made sure the decision he made was the right one. Surely this would be the win or loss of the human race in the war against the covenant. His com-link crackled on and a voice began shouting shakily.

"Master Chief, what do you think you're doing?!"

He bravely responded. "Sir, I'm finishing this war…"

**SHA-VOIP!**

Trent appeared in the game, taking Master Chief's place in the armor. He only needed a moment to see that he was in the ending cinematic of Halo 2. Immediately he panicked. "DEAR JEBUS! Why in the **name of god** am I on a covenant battle cruiser!? What in nine hells made me think this was a good idea!?"

A covenant elite in the front of the ship heard shouts in English from the back of the ship, he traveled to the cargo bay to see what happened, only to see the face of Master Chief himself (or, at least, someone in his armor). Before he could screech in terror at or shoot the covenant's worst enemy, Trent came up to the elite and grabbed his shoulders, shaking him back and forth.

"Do you have any idea how stupid of a decision it was to get on a covenant ship!? I'm gonna freakin' **DIE!**"

Not understanding what Trent was jabbering on about, the covenant soldier took it as a harsh death threat, probably a dang good one, and fainted. Trent stared at the unconscious form and hatched an idea. He flung open the door to the front of the ship and jumped in between of the pilot and his controls. "**Turn this ship around right NOW!"**

The pilots instinctively flipped out. "For the love of science! It's Master Chief!"

"Feckin' **JUMP!**"

Trent's com-link crackled on once more as he watched the two aliens plummet to their doom. Dieh's voice could be heard, breathing heavily. "Trent! How pant did you get in pant there?!"

Trent cautiously tapped the side of the helmet, letting him talk back to Dieh. "I got Rinn to charge the headset with magic lightning, so I'm pretty sure that warped me in here… how are you talking to me and why are you panting?"

"I just pant heard the news, and ran up three stories to get pant here, I'm on the headset."

"Oh, well then… how do you think I'm going to get out of here?"

"I really don't know… but I assume you just have to beat the level… then again, you're in a cinematic, so I'm not sure. Also, who's piloting the ship?"

"Me."

…

"I would've been less worried if you had just 'oh no'."

Suddenly a large, circular green vortex, once again made of ones and zeros, split open in the cockpit. There was a visible tunnel of the green mass, followed by a tiny white light at the end. Dieh pointed it out. "All right, apparently you only have to kill something or another to get out… go through the vortex so we can get back to our lives, okay?"

"Roger!"

--

Trent appeared on an oddly furnished platform. All around him, a swirl of hazy purple and black made up the sky, protruded by the large, industrial-looking tower on the platform he was on. The small staircase leading up to the tower was occupied by a tall man in a black cloak. The hood of the cloak was thrown up; revealing the out-of-control, white/grey hair of the man. Trent looked down at himself and noticed he was wearing something completely different from his normal armor and Spartan armor: comfortable clothing.

_Wow, this is nice._ He thought to himself, surveying the primary black garb he was wearing. A small cricket jumped onto his shoulder and spoke up in Dieh's voice. "Trent? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah… why are you a cricket?"

"Well, apparently, I speak through whatever normally talks to whoever you are in the game… in this case, jiminy cricket."

"So I'm in Kingdom Hearts now?!"

"Yeah, number 2. I'm not sure why you're not back in the real world, but just keep going… looks like you have to fight Xemnas."

Trent looked back to the man, who was currently rushing towards him, armed with two glowing red blades. Trent drew his sword to find that it was gone, replaced with a keyblade. "A feckin' **key?** What th- **OOF!**"

Trent was flung back by the spinning strike of Xemnas, who came in for another. Trent held the keyblade up firmly and locked swords with him. "That hurt, dude, lay off!"

Xemnas ignored the unscripted speech and threw Trent back once more, towards the edge of the floating platform. He came in again for a downward blow, disappearing just before Trent could block. He reappeared beside Trent and pushed him to the left, again teleporting. Xemnas came from the left this time and side-swiped Trent off of his feet, high into the air. Yet again, he came from above with a spinning strike.

Trent was hit directly and landed again, eyes ablaze. "You like spins, **jackass?!** I'll give you **spins! Eleven Beat Slash!"**

Trent found that the beat slash technique **was** really more like a beating than a slashing when he used a keyblade. The first slash broke through Xemnas's barrier and flung him into the tower. The following nine were a combination of pushing him further into the tower, breaking the tower into many chunks, and cutting through every bit of arsenal Xemnas had. For the final, Trent decided to pull off something he had done many times in this game: a reaction command. He did not know whether it would work, but he felt that a reaction command should be used at this point.

Trent grabbed Xemnas and threw him face-first into the ground, semi-unconscious. He jumped to the wall of the large, collapsing building and ran up the side of it, dragging the keyblade alongside him for dramatic effect, sparks spewing out from the friction. At the peak, Trent turned around and ran back down the side of the illuminated tower, faster than the rain that had begun to fall. Only a yard or two away from Xemnas, who was just recovering, Trent armed himself for a killing blow.

**KRACKA-THOOM!**

The area split directly in half, starting at the tower, and plummeted into the hazy abyss. Where Xemnas's etched form laid in the ground, which was now vertical to Trent, opened up into a Xemnas-shaped portal of green ones and zeros. _Heh, just like in the matrix._ Trent thought as he dashed into it.

--

Trent materialized on top of a very familiar roof. He was now clad in blue overalls and a red shirt, topped with a red cap with the letter "M" printed on it. "Ooh, lookie! I got a mustache!" Trent mused as he fingered the large, dark brown 'stache just above his lip.

Dieh again sounded from nowhere. "Trent, you there?"

"Yeah, I am, and I'm Mario!"

"You certainly are, but I have bad news…"

"Bad news?! I'm on top of Mushroom castle and I'm Mario! This is awesome!"

…

"Dieh, why is your voice coming from my pants? Aren't you supposed to be talking through whatever talks to my character the most?"

"Uh… yeah… I guess Mario talks to his pants a lot…"

…

…

…

…

"That's creepy… but anyway, I'm in a Mario game!"

"No, Trent, seriously, you…"

"I must be in 'Super Mario 64!"

"No, you're not…"

"Super Mario World?"

"No, Trent…"

"Super Mario Sunshine?"

"**LOOK OUT!**"

Trent was too late to look as he was kneed in the face by Captain Falcon, head-butted by Pikachu, and slashed by Link simultaneously. Trent was picked up by the collar before he could recover and rammed into the wall of the building, left for dead. His pants sighed and spoke in an "I tried to tell you" sort of way. "You're actually in Super Smash Brothers: Melee, Trent."

"Well, dang… I don't think I can feel my pelvis."

"I really, **really** didn't need to know that, Trent… really."

"Right… so, I'm in 'Smash Bros.', right?"

"Yeah."

Trent smiled mischievously and stood up, much to the surprise of the other three characters. Little to they know, but no one beats Trent at Super Smash Brothers… nobody at all.

--

Approximately 3 minutes later…

--

Trent casually walked towards the portal at the top of the castle, smiling to himself. He could tell that Dieh was cringing at how horribly maimed the others were in the way the spoke. "Was it really necessary to shout 'nobody beats me in this game' so loud that the windows shattered?"

"Yes."

"And did it really seem so important to make sure that Captain Falcon's legs were jammed **completely** down his throat?"

"You got it."

"And to see to it that Pikachu's lightning-shaped tail could also be used as a hacksaw for sawing off bits of the roof and seeing if you could use them to crush Captain Falcon and Pikachu's bodies together?"

"Of course."

"And trying to find out if Pikachu's ears doubled as darts for pinning bits of Link's body to the wall?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Man, I don't even want to **remember** what you did to Link while he was **still alive**!"

"Oh, come on, was it really that bad?"

"A man's wang isn't supposed to twist that way!"

**SHA-VOIP!**

--

While walking through the number cavern once more, Trent stopped to think. "Wait, how close am I to getting out of here?"

Dieh, having nothing to speak out of, let his voice flow directly into Trent's brain. "Well, I'd say that you should be fairly close… you've been appearing in the last levels of a few games now… in alphabetical order… skipping a few letters each time… but the last one was 'S', so I think this may be the last."

"Good…" Trent said as he stepped out, now situated in a place he had seen only once. All around him, giant amounts of rubble from a gargantuan tower that used to be where he was were strewn about. Bits of iron fencing and weapons could be spotted here and there, amidst the bodies of goblins, orcs, and skeletons. The sky was dark and a harsh rainstorm pounded the earth with water. The only definite objects around were the stone-brick floor and Trent. Upon seeing his new costume of a green tunic, rough leather boots, white tights, an overlarge green hat, and a long sword with a purple hilt, Trent knew where he was: the final level of "The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time."

A small, blue fairy spastically flew rings around Trent and shouted with Dieh's sound. "You're in 'Ocarina of Time'? **How!?** This isn't in alphabetical order at all! Who knows when you'll get out of here, Trent!?"

"Actually, Dieh, that whole title was way too long for me, so I just edited it on the menu to 'Zelda: Ocarina of Time."

The glowing blue fairy plopped down on Trent's head and sighed deeply. "That's a relief… but I thought you fought Ganondorf at the end of this game… this doesn't look like where you fight him."

"Dieh, you beat Ganondorf and then turned off the console immediately to go celebrate… there's a second form."

"You mean I did all of that for nothing!? Aw, man… what happens after that?!"

"Well, Dieh… the citadel falls, you lose track of Zelda, you wake up amidst all of this rubble, and then Ganondorf wakes up."

"But you stab him in the throat, how does he fight again?"

"As Ganon, Dieh… as Ganon."

On cue, a colossal monster of scaly green flesh and rock-solid hide emerged from the depths of the ground. Its forearms were gone, replaced with giant swords, both dusty and worn. The great monster looked down at Trent, at least one hundred feet below him, with his monolithic, glowing eyes. Without a second thought, it swept Trent away with a flick of the wrist.

Bashed against the side of a broken wall, Trent felt aimlessly around in the mud for the master sword. _Oh yeah… crap._ He thought as he saw the master sword on the other side of Ganon, point up. Another stab from Ganon sunk into the earth not far from Trent.

Trent pulled himself up and ran to the blade, stuck in the earth. Before he could get to it, Ganon literally stepped in between them. Ganon tried once more to stomp on Trent, crushing Trent's foot instead of his whole body. He looked at the tiny, limping form of Trent on the ground and smiled inwardly, raising a sword-arm. The blade was brought down slowly enough for Trent to jump out of the way, but he was hit with the recoil shockwave, flung face-first into a large rock again.

At this point, Trent remembered he had another weapon: The Megaton Hammer! He pulled out the great, shimmering warhammer and noticed that Ganon's slash was so intense that his arm had been lodged into the ground. Trent seized the opportunity and smashed the blade's side with his hammer. The crack made from the blow traveled up the blade to its hilt, the force finally hitting Ganon with tremendous power.

Ganon yowled and reared back, falling over in the process. As Ganon hit the floor, Trent heard the sound of a sword puncturing flesh. _The Master Sword!_ Trent thought. Ganon raised himself and got on one knee to rest. As he had thought, Trent saw the tiny form of the master sword dug into Ganon's left shoulder blade.

Ganon stepped up and turned back to Trent, slashing at him again with the damaged blade. It connected once more with the ground, but this time in the earth, not on the hard stone. With no shockwave, Trent rushed to the blade and smashed it into two pieces with the megaton hammer. The force of the hammer itself created a shockwave of its own, breaking off the left side of the blade; the other side still dug into the earth.

With one side of the enormous sword broken, the unsharpened middle with presented to Trent, just thick enough to walk on. Trent eagerly dashed up the hunk of metal as it was being released from the earth. Trent mounted the hilt of the blade just in time to see the unscathed sword-arm lunging at him. Trent leapt from the hilt of Ganon's arm onto his shoulder, leaving the forearm to be cleaved off.

Without waiting for Ganon's reaction, Trent jumped off of Ganon's shoulder, down to where his sword was buried. As he fell, he grabbed on to the weapon, halting his descent. Trent ripped out the Master Sword and ran back up Ganon's back at the same time, running as he had learned to do with his reaction command back in Kingdom Hearts.

Upon reaching the crest of his climb, Trent reared himself into the sky, blade at the ready, and set himself up for a harsh downward stab. _Just like in Shadow of Colossus!_ He thought.

**KRRSSHINK!**

Trent dug the sword into Ganon's head, instantly slaying the monster. The earth trembled at the force, opening a fissure in the ground. Trent, losing his balance on the slick surface of Ganon's head, fell off, deep into the crack of the stone. Just as he was contemplating the fact that he was to die, Trent saw the green one-and-zero bottom of the fissure. _Oh, so that's it, huh? Home, here I come!_

--

"Trent? **Trent? TREEEENNNNTTT!!"** Dieh shouted into the headset. This action was followed immediately by Trent flying out of the television, into Dieh. The two, and the couch, skidded across the floor into the wall, recovering shortly thereafter. Trent immediately stood up and ran for the door.

"Where are you going?" Rinn asked, still situated with his book.

"I think I may have idea for something totally awesome, and I'm going to the training course to test it out… wanna come with me?"

Dieh and Rinn both agreed to go with him, mainly out of boredom and curiosity, and were amazed at what followed.

--

20 minutes of Trent's testing later.

--

"…Dear god."


	34. Why stalling never helps

**Well, as those of you who read the last chapter know, Trent got some mad ups a little while back. The ever-present and looming grudge match between the Leonhart and Braska dorms is just around the corner, and everyone seems happy… but wait! Did our heroes forget something important?**

Why stalling never helps.

"Dieh! I got it!" Trent yelled wildly as he toppled out of the earth-graphia portal, right in front of Dieh; sitting on a lawn chair. Trent set himself upright and proudly brandished an all-new Play Station 3. Dieh lowered the sunglasses he was wearing and smirked.

"Great, Trent… but the Wii came out while you were gone, so… hop to it. I'll hook this up to the tower while we wait."

Trent put down the precious 600$ console and leapt back into the portal. Just as he vanished into the swirling blue-white screen, Aran and Rinn turned the corner of the room to find Dieh. Rinn sprinted over to the portal and stared into it, seeing Trent's vanishing form as a tiny little speck at the back. "Please don't tell me Trent just went back to earth to buy the Wii…"

"All right, I won't. What's the occasion?"

Aran walked to the other side of Dieh's lawn chair and leaned up against it. "Mr. King's signature move assignment is due tomorrow, and we still have no idea what we're going to do… we need Trent to be here."

"Well, maybe I can help you there."

Aran and Rinn looked at each other, then back to Dieh. "Dieh…" Rinn said, "the moves that we plan on trying out all rely on Trent's ability of resisting massive amounts of damage… you're too fragile."

"Oh." Dieh said, rubbing his chin. Dieh rubbed his chin a lot more than a normal person would, mostly because he was trying to grow a goatee. He would use confusion as an excuse to see how it was coming along. "Well, here's what I think. We already know that Trent is more or less invincible, right?"

"Yeah."

"And we know that Aran can transmute metals into other things, right?"

"Right, what about it?"

"Well, Trent's body armor is 100 percent steel… maybe you could do something with that. Of course, it's just a suggestion."

Again, Aran and Rinn met eye-to-eye-to-Dieh.

"Genius?"

"Freakin' genius."

--

A harsh gust blew over the hillside of the calm-lands. The chains of its sole occupant rattled against the mighty wind, guarded from the airborne grasses and twigs of the area. As the chained figure approached the crest of the last hill, he tripped over an upturned root. The figure pulled himself up and lost his balance the other way around, falling over backwards and tumbling down the steep slope.

The man's body, still completely hidden in a guise of bloody, steel chains smashed against a slightly jagged rock towards the bottom of the hill. Blood now began to flow from the re-opened wounds and bruises, leaking out of the spaces between the interlocked metal, as freely as it had flown not but three days ago.

_It's hard to see where I'm going with all of this metal blocking my view… I don't even know where I am. I've been wandering blindly forward for a whole day now… when is that second wind going to kick in?_

Suddenly the miserable lump of steel and blood felt a slight increase in his vitality. He smiled to himself. _There we go!_ The figure grappled onto the mass of tangled steel from the inside and, with a great heave, threw it off of himself; revealing a scarred, bruised face, tattered armor, mangled body, and scarlet red hair.

Bartholomew again climbed to the top of the incline that he had previously failed to reach. He massaged his right arm, broken in seven places, and prayed that his self-regeneration ability would kick in soon. Looking down upon the lush green grass and up to the stormy, water-laden sky, he shouted triumphantly.

"It will take more than a few chains to take out a Cedric, Alucard! I'm coming for you!"

--

Speaking of Alucard…

--

He sat atop a mound of sand nomads; their bodies crudely fashioned into an armchair shape. Alucard sat comfortably in the arid heat, seated on a pile of his victims. He rolled the skull of a young sand nomad patron around in his hand, his movements cleanly showing off his boredom. The fires of the desert village that he had started about three hours ago had started to die down, and Alucard began to wonder where his guest was. Once he was about to get up and venture into the desert himself, he saw a great cloud of dust on the horizon; Alucard smiled to himself in the blazing sunlight.

_Took you long enough… though, I suppose it has been a while, then…_

Alucard stepped off of his corpse throne and walked forward to meet the monstrosity that approached him. Made completely of the slightly transparent, outer shell of a giant desert scorpion and assorted other parts of large, dead desert dwellers, Alucard's trusty steed arrived.

About the size of a train boxcar, the monster was now upon him. The great, shaky creature stopped mere feet in front of Alucard. The spine and shoulder-blades of a sand giant supported the whole thing, held up by the force of eight, hollowed legs from a blade-legged desert tarantula. The poisonous, rotting claws and inner pincers of a giant desert scorpion were loosely attached to the front of the demon, from which bits and pieces of past kills were still attached. The assorted connecting bones and branching bones of multiple desert-crawling mammals and giant insect filled the spaces between the limbs, all jammed inside of the exoskeleton of a giant desert scorpion. The sinews and veins of countless other animals bound all of the ingredients together, like rope binding a mass of cargo.

Alucard stepped towards the creature and ran a hand over its head, re-inspecting his creation after years of slumber. The familiar black-violet glow of necromantic magic confirmed that the monster was still in top condition. "It is so nice to see you again," Alucard hissed, "I hope you're ready to cover quite a bit of land… we have a long way to go before we can get to the master again."

The creature let out a head splitting noise of approval, like the combination of a sinister hiss, a bloodcurdling screech, and a wailing moan. Alucard smiled and mounted the horrible monster. _Music to my ears._

"Come, Xaqorious… we have much ground to traverse."

Xaqorious shrieked in approval again and bulldozed through the heap and nomad bodies, into the hot desert sun.

--

**This short chapter is brought to you by: Thanksgiving!**

**Non-filler chapter coming soon, followed by the Hero Academy "Christmas Extravaganza" in a few weeks. Peace out, everyone… thanksgiving has landed me in a temporary food coma. **

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	35. The product of stalling

**Thanks to all of you readers for your words of kindness and… good… stuff. A few things I'd like to bring up now:**

**First of all, my new Nintendo Wii is being shipped to my homeland as we speak, and will be arriving on Wednesday. I'll try to update again before that, since I will be very busy with a certain master-sword wielding hero for a few days. Also, Christmas is coming up soon, so there'll be a shortage of chapters during that time as well.**

**Second, I just saw "Déjà vu" in theaters… it rocks the house, big time. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good action/mystery/adventure/suspense movie.**

**And finally: enjoy the following piece of writing that I will now provide for you.**

The product of slacking off

Rinn hid behind a large slab of granite stuck in the soft ground. Just as he dove into the protection of the sturdy material, a thick, flaming mass of napalm rushed by him, burning the heel of his shoe. Rinn immediately began to cast water on the blaze stuck to his heel, but stopped and decided it was better to put it out by jamming it into the sand surrounding him.

Smoke rose from the extinguishing of the flame, rising until it went above the blocked view of the granite slab. Too late, Rinn figured out that the creature would see that smoke; he sprinted away just as the slap was flicked behind Bahamut. Having no cover, Rinn looked up into the looming face of his attacker: Bahamut.

Bahamut inhaled deeply, ready to lob another burst of searing hot napalm at Rinn, who now was defenseless. Rinn utilized his only hope left: running. He sprinted to the left, knowing the technique would be next to useless in the columned circular room. Light streamed through the oval windows on the first and second story wall; the ceiling of the first floor completely obliterated, therefore leaving no floor for the second story, either. Rinn was cut off by Bahamut's claw slamming into the ground directly in front of him; he turned around to see the other had been set down at the same time.

As Bahamut reared his great, black head back, light reflected off of the durable, metallic shielding that covered his face. The light went directly into Rinn's light sensitive eyes, blinding him. As Rinn heard the sound of the napalm being hurled towards him, he knew it was game over.

--

Trent shook his head clear after behind tail-whipped into the stone wall of the large, circular clearing. He ran his hand's through the sandy flooring and picked himself up, now angry. He could clearly see Bahamut about 50 or so yards in front of him. Just barely in his line of sight, Trent could see Rinn dive behind one of the stone slabs that had fallen from the wall behind him during the fight. Trent picked up his broadsword and rushed to the back of the dragon. After covering about half of the distance, the granite chunk was flung behind Bahamut, heading directly for Trent.

Trent thought quickly and dove forward into a front flip, sword in front of him. The downward slash that resulted cut the stone in half, ready to fly apart. With lighting-fast reflexes, Trent landed his dive and dropped his blade, spreading out both arms to catch the two halves of the granite before they could go very far. He managed to catch then and flung the right half at the back of Bahamut's head.

Bahamut was nearly ready to crush Rinn with his claw, but the slab smacked the dragon just in time. Bahamut temporarily lost his focus and overshot the distance, claw landing just in front of Rinn, cutting off Rinn's escape. Trent looked back to the hulking black monster after dealing with the recoil of his throw, seeing that Bahamut was ready to shoot another ball of napalm at Rinn. Trent panicked and took the sword in his right hand, the other half of the granite still in his left; Trent made a mad dash to the one-on-one fight on the other side of the room.

--

Stealthily leaping across the top edge of the fully curved wall with his natural cat-like mithran reflexes, Aran surveyed the fight going on beneath him with unparalleled scrutiny. Searching for even the smallest lapse in Bahamut's defense, Aran soon found what he was looking for. He noticed that Bahamut's two shoulder-blades doubled as a section of outer armor; when Bahamut was hunched over, the shoulder-blades would be pulled up a bit in reaction, therefore exposing a softer patch of dragon skin underneath his hard blackened exterior.

Once Bahamut had once more attempted to intimidate Rinn by hulking over him, the patch was revealed and Aran utilized his mithran eyes to study the material. From his high perch, he could only see enough to make a brief assumption, but Bahamut's movement made it even harder. Before Aran could identify the substance, a broad chunk of granite came crashing on the black dragon's back; part of it getting stuck in between the sections of armor, covering up the patch.

_For the love of god, Trent…_ Aran though, sighing. He was pulled out of his discouragement, however, when he saw the dragon pull back slightly, though less than usual, to chuck another flaming horror at his black mage friend. Aran thought the only way he could: like a white mage would.

"Protect!"

--

In one combined swoop of swift movement and judgment, the three heroes acted as one. Trent leapt at the beast from behind while Aran jumped down from his perch, protecting Rinn from Bahamut's attack as he fell. Trent used the granite slab jammed in Bahamut's back as a platform to jump forward from, still armed with another stone sheet and his sword. As Aran began to cast a wide-spread cure spell to heal the three, Trent front-flipped in his dragon-jump, crushing Bahamut's chest armor with a thunderous crack as granite connected with dragon; sending the monstrous form flying backwards, catching itself mere feet before colliding with the wall that Trent had been flung into.

Staggering backwards, Bahamut clutched his injured chest with his claw, now presenting himself with a "mad-dog" look in his eyes. The creature was going berserk, and the heroes knew this fight wouldn't last much longer. Aran looked to Trent, Trent looked to Rinn, and Rinn nodded solemnly to confirm that the opportune moment had come.

Rinn took on a stalwart stance and stomped towards the monster, bringing his arms up and down accordingly to his heavy steps. The crusty earth shook and crack as he neared the dragon, which reacted predictably: with rage and force. Rinn punched the air with a right hook, still a good way away from the charging beast. After about a second's delay, a massive coil of stone and sand burst from the ground and right-hooked Bahamut accordingly, toppling him to the ground. Bahamut got back on his feet, once again charging at Rinn, only to be smacked the other way. As his rage built, Bahamut lost his focus, forgetting to guard his damaged center. Rinn continued to push back the raging beast with his assault of earth until Bahamut's back was literally against the wall.

Rinn turned back to his partners and shouted. "Take formation, now!"

Bahamut, now completely lost to his anger, spread his massive wings and flapped them in great strokes, creating heavy waves of wind that smashed against the heroes as they attempted to destroy him. Rinn used his earth attunement to create a stone brace at Aran's feet, keeping him from moving. Aran now stood firmly behind Trent, whom had Rinn standing in front of him. "Ready, Rinn?" Aran shouted to his friend over the roar of Bahamut's shockwaves.

"Go for it!"

_Right then…_ Aran thought, gripping the pauldrons of Trent's armor to keep him from being blown away. "Transmute: Solar Alloy!" shouted Aran once more, concentrating with all of his might on the steel of presented in front of him. In another second's delay, Trent's armor flashed into a bright yellow from its normal crimson. The sun shined in from the gaping hole in the wall and lack of ceiling; at first glaring off of the new metal, then disappearing into it. Slowly the color changed from canary yellow to an intense white light as the solar alloy collected the sun energy.

Bahamut furiously rampaged towards Rinn, Trent, and Aran as soon as he noticed the wind wasn't working. Drawing ever closer as the beast dashed across the land, Rinn squinted his eyes against the flying sand, standing solemnly in front of Trent. _Wait for it…_ Rinn thought as Bahamut sprinted across another fourth of the land. _Wait for it… just a bit closer…_ his thoughts continued; the black dragon, still oblivious to lack of chest protection, was not too far from his prey, covering yards in single steps.

_Now._

Rinn utilized his channeling skill and placed a hand over Trent's chest-plate, instantly gaining use of the massive amounts of energy stores in it. With his left side to Trent and Aran, left arm on the power source, and right arm and staff point aiming directly at Bahamut's weakened chest, Rinn could only hope that Aran's new stone bracers could hold out against the recoil of their attack.

"Team Maneuver: Solar Beam!"

The massive kick from the shot washed over the three, first traveling through Rinn's arms, to Trent's upper body, on to Aran's entire form, carrying down through the stone bracers and emptying into the earth beneath them. Sight was no longer an option as the sound of a rushing hurricane paired with the screeches of Bahamut filled the air, all vision blocked out by the brilliant white light of the beam.

It hit not only Bahamut's weak area, but completely overran him, covering the beast in the force of the powerful attack. Suddenly, though, everything went back to how it was. There was no more sand, no more dragon, and no more solar beam. The wind had gone, the sounds forgotten, and the pain had left. Back on the center floor of Mr. King's coliseum-like room, Rinn, Trent, and Aran brushed themselves off a bit and awaited a verdict.

Mr. King looked them over briefly and spoke. "Well, that wasn't half a bad job in the simulation, boys… It's good to see some initiative being taken in these projects nowadays… most of the time; everyone just leaves it until the last day to think up a team move."

At this, of course, the three flinched internally, knowing that that was exactly what they had done. Mr. King continued, though; "The attack was certainly good enough to take out Bahamut at that level… good teamwork… not too flashy… I'll give your project 94 out of 100 points, congratulations."

"Heck yes!"

"Aww yeah!"

"Jubilations!"

--

After class had finished, Rinn turned to Trent in the hallway while walking back to the dorm. He simply chuckled and shook his head before looking up. "Jubilations, eh?"

"It seemed like an appropriate thing to say."

--

**That about wraps it up, peoples… sorry about the how long it's been since the last update; I blame… uh…**

**Hell, I'm just lazy. I also got a Wii, sooo… Zelda has a great deal to do with my absence. Anyways, I'll see you guys later.**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	36. Endless Waltz, part 1

**Now activating transmission… the update is two months late because I have done some serious decision making in the past few weeks. After many, many long hours of thought and consultation with friends and whatnot, I regret to tell you that this last multi-part chapter marks the end of Hero Academy in its current form. I might try to pick back up on this… but it wouldn't be for a very, very long while. Too many things are getting in the way and I just can't get very much molded with the clay that I'm working with for this story, so I have made the decision, which is final.**

**I sincerely hope you all enjoy these final few chapters, which I have planned out for about two weeks to be the most hardcore chapters ever. Have fun then, eh?**

Endless Waltz, part 1: the beginning of the end.

Rinn skidded to a halt on the hard sandstone roof of the tower. Clutching his side from recent wounds, he looked back up to his adversary. "I highly doubt that's the best you can do." He said through gritted teeth.

Sergin looked down at him, advancing slowly, and brandished his double-sided blade. "And I highly doubt you'd like to see the best I can do." He walked in a circle around Rinn's kneeled form and tauntingly fiddled with his sword. "Just go ahead and give up, Orunitia… you and I both know that you can't win this fight. So don't push it to the point of a fight to the death, alright?"

Standing up wearily, the black mage saw his staff on the other side of Sergin and decided to go for it. "No offense there, Sergin, but I'm afraid that's **my** decision." Rinn quickly darted to one side of Sergin, knowing that he would follow. Once he had met Rinn's dodge, Rinn leapt to the other side, foot turned outwards, and tripped Sergin. Making a mad dash to his trusty staff, Rinn dove into it, grappled onto the wood hastily, and turned himself on his back just in time to block a downward cut from Sergin.

Throwing him off, Sergin landed solidly on his feet and again faced Rinn. Giving Rinn time to bring himself up, Sergin chuckled. "It looks like we're right back where we started, doesn't it?"

Rinn, panting hard, attempted to maintain a solid view of Sergin. With the afternoon's late sun just barely above his head, Sergin had become somewhat of a blurry, blackened shape in Rinn's eyes. He attempted to hold himself up on his staff, only to find that Sergin's attack had crippled it. Now shaky and falling apart, the staff had become useless. _You have got to be freaking kidding me._

--

Meanwhile, back on the ground…

--

Trent had his hands full with Kutota and Crystal. Bruised, battered, and cut in several places, things were looking bad. Now semi-conscious, Trent was thrown into the side of the tower that Rinn and Sergin had been dueling on. Just as he was able to stand and steady himself, Kutota lashed at him with a flurry of lightning-fast jabs to his chest. With each hit, the indent Trent's body was making in the wall grew deeper and deeper. Finally, though, the inside of the wall cracked and gave way, sending the warrior flying backwards into the chamber of cobblestone and cement.

Opening his eyes with just enough time to see a great shard of ice falling down onto his face from above, Trent summoned his remaining vitality to barrel roll out of the way. Dazed and weary, he raised himself onto one knee and spit a tooth out onto the ground. _Damn… that was my good molar, too,_ he thought to himself. A small shadow appeared over him and he clumsily jumped backwards to dodge, landing on his heels and toppling backwards as the icy cone crashed onto the ground he previously occupied.

_Alright, I have to stop this before I get seriously hurt._ Trent used every muscle and bone in his body to stand up straight, and wobbled out of the newly created hole in the wall. He held his hands up to call of brief cease-fire. Crystal and Kutota lowered their defenses a bit, though still remained vigilant.

"Look, I'm pretty sure you guys are tired from beating me around for about a solid hour… and I'm pretty tired from taking it all. So how about we just finish it now so we can all go home and laugh about this later?" Trent cemented his suggestion by spreading his arms, standing perfectly still, leaving himself open to even the most inaccurate attack.

Kutota bowed before Trent. "Your way is honorable, Trent. Thank you for coming to your senses."

Crystal took her staff in hand and dug it into the sandy flooring. With a chill in the air, the metallic pole became cold, iced over, and eventually became a solid pillar of ice. Lifting it horizontally and preparing to throw, she agreed with Kutota. "I'll try to make sure this hurts as little as possible, Trent."

"Thanks."

The pillar was lobbed towards Trent, the blunt end facing front, and was quickly followed by Kutota, his fist ready to fly. Kutota broke a bit off of the end with his solid punch, sending the icy monolith rocketing towards the red-haired warrior. Just as his time in the match was about to end, snubbed out by the hurtling ice spell, Trent put out his hands and caught the pillar.

Going with the momentum it had provided, similar to the beat slash technique Trent was so used to using, Trent whirled it around once and swatted Kutota away, unprepared, like a mere paperclip. Crystal, shocked, reached for her staff, disappointed when she quickly realized it was firmly sealed within Trent's new club. Crushing the great block of ice, Trent brushed away the remaining bits of frozen water and took the staff in hand, breaking it in half over his knee.

"You realize, of course, that when I send "finish it now", I meant I would stop playing around with you guys, right?"

--

4 hours earlier…

--

Eight from the right, nine from the left… Verikk viewed the match from the same viewpoint he had during the entrance exams. The sun seemed to put a copper-like sheen on the stadium's sandy base while the two dorms approached the center of the ring. Gana once again walked out from the south entrance and strode in between the two lines of heroes. He stopped in the middle of them all and raised his hands for silence, a signal that was met with merely a dull roar.

The heroes stood back, as they had learned to, as to escape the loud, booming voice of Gana's voice enchantment. "This grudge match will be fought in four rounds. The first three rounds will consist of a challenge to be competed in by one squad from each team. Whichever squad wins the match will earn one point for their team, and the losing squad will be kicked from the grudge match entirely."

"If one dorm wins all three preliminary rounds, that dorm will be declared the winner of the grudge match. But otherwise, each team will pick one squad from their dorm that has not been kicked out to compete in the final match, a battle royal."

The words "battle royal" were met with thunderous applause, forcing Gana to again wait for silence. Once the sound had dimmed enough for Gana to be heard, he continued. "The final match is worth one point, just like the others. Should there be a tie, both squads will take a vote on whether or not there is to be a tiebreaker match. And nothing left to explain, I present to you all The Graphian Trials!"

--

Gana was immediately met by Astos when he left the heroes about their business in the ring, walking back through the southern entrance. Though the short tunnel was dark, Gana knew who he was facing. "Greetings, friend. I'm sure you're excited to see your advisees in action once again, eh? It's going to be quite the match."

"Yes, Gana, I know… but I haven't come to you to talk about the match, I must speak with you about the opposing team."

There was a slight pause in the conversation and Gana briefly furrowed his brow. "The Braska dorm? What about them, Astos?"

"Well don't you think it's a bit unfair to my team to put them up against such a relentless foe? I believe it falls under the category of 'fixed match', wouldn't you say?"

"Astos, are you suggesting that I purposely set this up so that your advisees could lose?"

Astos clenched his fist and gained a slight buzz that Gana had never seen before. "No, no, no, Gana. It's unfair to them because it will make them stronger! I'm sure you've noticed that every time the Leonhart dorm begins to falter, they pick themselves back up stronger than they had previously been?"

"Are you feeling well, Astos? You seem a bit… frantic."

Again the energetic haze dawned over Astos as he again pressed on in the conversation. "I am feeling perfectly fine, Gana… just perfectly fine. I only worry about what harm will come to my advisees if they become true heroes… I wouldn't want anything bad to happen, and you wouldn't either, would you?"

"I don't quite understand your reasoning Astos… wha-?"

Astos recoiled now into a slightly more defense position and eased himself against the wall a bit. Gana, now concerned, asserted himself. "Astos, you really are acting strangely, I must insist you come to the infirmary at once!"

After a moment's delay, Gana found himself pinned up against the wall by the young beastmaster, the somewhat demented look having returned to his eyes. Astos' face threw itself into an insane look as he smiled demonically. "Look, Gana… if they grow too powerful, they will become heroes, yes? And if they become heroes, they will have enemies, correct? And once the Miasma is upon us once more, those enemies will make sure to eliminate the heroes that stand in their path, chosen ones or not.

"And, dear friend, another fact of this matter that I hate to bring up must be told. You are a hero as well, and therefore must be dealt with so that the demons can reign strong once again!"

Gana, shocked, threw Astos off of him and took his stance. "This is something I never expected of you, Astos… have you been this way all along?" he asked with an intense, though slightly veiled, authority in his voice.

Astos' haunting smile grew while his eyes widened, showing off a distinct orange color that they had not contained earlier. "If by all along, you mean my whole life?" Astos reached quickly for the top of the zipper to his beastmaster's vest and ripped the connected metal-workings off, throwing them at Gana's feet and letting the now destroyed vest fall to the ground, which in turn revealed a dark grey synthetic shirt. Neon orange wires that seemed to pulsate some form of liquid streaked across the dark fabric, two from either shoulder that ended at the wrists, one from either collar bone that ended at the waist, and one single wire around his neck that ended in a circle on his chest. "Then my answer would have to be yes."

Astos twisted his entire upper body 180 degrees, and then bent it backwards to face Gana. Rotating his head another 180 degrees to set his face upright, Astos now stood blankly in front of Gana, his arms dangling with no life. "So what say we get you out of the way, hm?"

--

Gana never made it back to his seat in the Coliseum stands.

--

**Hopefully this gets you guys excited for the next few chapters, which, by the way, will rock so hard it won't even be funny. I'm going to try to get these chapters out a lot quicker than I have been with this one… that was totally uncalled for and I'm sorry. Finally, I'll have to say bye to all of you guys for now, as the tiredness of me is immense.**


	37. Endless Waltz, part 2

**Well, it is good to know that everyone who reads my story is so understanding about me having to end it. Again, I apologize for having to do so; it's just something that I had to do. Hopefully I can end Hero Academy well.**

Endless Waltz, part 2: the first preliminary round.

**Round number: **One

**Round title:** "Target Practice"

**Task:** Breaks the targets scattered around the course.

**Winning condition:** First team to break 10 targets wins.

**Time limit:** none

**Competitors (team 1):** Brendan, Celeste, and Brantley

**Competitors (team 2):** Mina, Jackson, and Dieh

--

As the six competitors entered the arena, the course was just beginning to start up. Sandstone bricks similar, though smaller, to the ones that made up the coliseum rose up from the sand in the thousands and began to lay themselves upon each other in a baffling show of flying rock and sand. Around the two teams of three, great walls began to rise and form a perfect square around them, soon followed by a patterned floor that came from the ground just beneath the entire fixture.

The walls continued to build and increase in height, soon blocking out the sun. The floor then began to sprout a lump in its center, made again completely of the smaller yellow bricks. Soon a roof had formed and the torches lit, the screens outside of the new room depicting all that happened inside for the audience, including the remaining 12 students who were yet to participate in the event, to view and enjoy. The lump of bricks burst into a thousands pieces as the stones began to fly about randomly within the impressively large and dank room. Again they laid themselves upon each other to form greater masses.

Some became thick stone squares, nearly ten feet tall and wide, that floated in the air. Others, thicker and wider, fell to the ground to make assorted platforms on the flooring. Some formed large circular platforms that floated amongst the squares, most notably one in the dead center of it all the rotated rather quickly, about the length of a normal bedroom. Still others, though, threw on vibrant combinations of red and white in a bull's eye formation; obviously these would be the targets.

As the final obstacles settled themselves around the great room, some on the floor, some on the ceiling, others stuck to the walls, and most floating, spinning, wobbling, or otherwise in mid-air, the large counter in the ceiling began to tick from five seconds. Four seconds soon followed, just before three was struck.

Two.

One.

Go.

--

At once the Leonhart team went into the default formation they had set up. Both Mina's shields were enlarged to their maximum size, the edges of which had been sharpened not but an hour ago, and Jackson began to put his summoning skills to work; an action that Dieh imitated.

On the other side, however, the Braska dorm's squad had plans of a different nature. The team leader, Brantley, signaled silently to Brendan and Celeste; an order the team had gone over before the match had begun. Brendan, a keen-witted and quick-footed member of the Defender class, brandished his massive spaulders, which stood like miniature towers, on his shoulders and rushed to the other side of the room where the Leonhart members had gathered. Simultaneously, Celeste summoned up a mass of white magic and disappeared in a quick flit of light. Brantley, the only man left on his side of the room, drew his sai blades and started to work his way up to the first target, located towards the top of the right wall.

Mina was taken aback when she saw the hulking mass of armor charging at her from the center of the room, but she took her stand all the same and prepared to absorb the tackle's force. Just as Brendan was right upon her, he dodged to the side to take out Jackson with one quick blow. Mina quickly rounded herself and reached for Brendan's metallic collar to pull him back, but was stopped as Celeste appeared directly behind her and took advantage of Mina's lack of balance from the quick turn. One quick slice kick was all it took to bring Mina down.

Celeste monitored the now unconscious Mina, who had slammed her head into the stone flooring, and heard a great metallic clang behind her. Knowing that Jackson was out of the picture, she turned around to Brendan. "I guess we're going to be ending this before five minutes is up, huh?" she said to him.

Unfortunately, Brendan couldn't hear Celeste through four feet of solid stone and Ifrit's tough claw. Jackson smirked as he looked at the shocked look on Celeste's face, and pointed his staff at her. "Next." Ifrit charged the white mage and disappeared into a cloud of steam and embers a mere two inches in front of her. She looked behind her, to the left, and to the right. As Celeste was about to speak in confusion, Mina sprung up surprisingly and back-hand-slapped her in the back of the head, adding extra concussive force via use of the shield in her right hand.

"Well, I was going to say it, but it looks like Celeste beat me to it," said Dieh. "I guess we're going to be ending this befo-!" Dieh was cut off and cut deep as Brendan crashed out of the wall and rammed into Dieh, sending him skidding onto the ground twenty feet away.

A bright light appeared just above Celeste's unconscious form and cast a cone of it's radiance over it. She opened her eyes and righted herself as though she had merely tripped instead of been forcibly knocked out. "Thank god for auto-regen."

Jackson and Mina stood in disbelief as the opposite two brushed themselves off. Brendan reset his helmet correctly onto his head and turned to them. "Round two, then?"

--

He opened his eyes. He tried to flex his arms. He began to breathe again. He looked around, seeing something he never thought he would see in his life: the inside of his own experimental containment chamber. A dark blue liquid surrounded him, keeping him still and alive, and he noticed the plethora of wires and tubes that had been placed around and inside of his arms, legs, chest, and more. A dark figure outside of the class chamber neared the container.

"You're finally awake, Original? I figured you'd be a few more days…"

The Original tried to lash about in anger, only to have a shock sent through his body in retaliation. The voice again sounded. "I wouldn't try to resist again… a few more of those shocks could get you into cardiac arrest.

"But I'll make this simple for you, especially seeing as how you can't speak yet without filling your lungs with the fluid around you. I know who you are: the original multiplier. You're able to make copies of yourself in copious amounts, and therefore you have the ability to get massive work forces to do whatever you want for you… not to mention you boast an IQ well above 200. I've salvaged the ruins of a corporate building on earth that collapsed around you to salvage your body and bring it hear, back to your laboratory… the sole purpose of my actions being to revive you, which you can see that I've done successfully as well.

"I know well those who defeated you, friend… my son is among the nine. I revived you because you and I share a common hate in these people and I know you wish to see their end just as much as I. I have the mystic power and prowess that you crave, and you have the wealth and ingenuity that I desire… so I figure that we can come to some kind of team-up agreement, yes? If you refuse… I can always shut off these machines."

…

The figure neared the glass even further, exposing a thin face with long white hair. "In short, Original… my name is Yazoo, and I need your help just as you need mine."

--

**GLORF**

Brantley hit the solid stone floor at an unfortunate momentum, smacked down by a wrathful Mina. He brought himself to one knee and spat onto the ground. "Getting kind of tired of this now…"

"Then make it easier on yourself and don't get back up." Mina replied with a definite smirk. Though the confidence faded fast when Brantley leapt up from his downed stance and rushed towards her, leaping into the air and bringing his foot into direct connection with her face as the jump-kick landed perfectly. Mina quickly barrel-rolled out of the way of what would have been a painful stomp from Brantley after she landed and swipe-kicked his balance away from him.

The score was two points to zero, with the Braska dorm winning. Leaping from platform to platform, Dieh couldn't lose Brendan to save his own life… literally. Nearly 150 feet in the air and trying his best to stay on the floating stones, he was almost at the end of the line. Landing shakily onto the center stone of the air-course, a large, slowly rotating circular platform, Dieh turned around just in time to jump back, nearly under the crushing stomp of his pursuer. Brendan's thunderous stomp would put Trent's to shame, as Dieh, who was on the opposite edge of the platform, was rocketed off the platform once the weight had pushed on one end, thus throwing the other upwards.

While flying through the air, Dieh saw Brendan on the wall no more than 20 yards in front of him. Brendan kicked off and prepared himself to swat Dieh down like a fly. Flying towards each other at hurtling speeds, Dieh had another plan. Just before the collision, Dieh suddenly gained massive altitude and avoided Brendan's tackle. The defender was sent crashing into the stone flooring, looking up at the now-floating Dieh with a look of complete confusion.

Dieh walked down to him, still on nothing but empty air, as though walking down a flight of stairs. He smirked and pointed to his feet. "Anti-matter soles in the bottom of my shoes that I invented. They cause air to become a solid surface if I hit it at a certain speed… which just happens to be set on walking speed. Good luck with catching me and all that." Dieh ran off laughing, about eight feet in mid air. Brendan rubbed his eyes and viewed the sight again.

"Son of a bitch…"

--

**And so part two of the first part of a part of the end of the story which is a part of… a piece… with… never mind. The point is, I finally have the inspiration train goin' again (FINALLY) and can now write with ease once more. Tune in soon for the next installment… and other stuff like that and whatnot.**


	38. Endless Waltz, part 3

Endless Waltz, part 3: The triad is separated once more.

Aran, Rinn and Trent sat in the contender's box on the base floor of the Colosseum seating. Watching the match on the huge screens placed all around the Colosseum, they got a preview of what they may have to face in their own challenge: defeat. The worry surely bit at them without mercy, as both watched with eyes that were both eager and fearful at the same time.

"Rinn, what's that thing called?" Trent turned to his friend and asked.

Rinn raised an eyebrow and shifted his view towards Trent. "What thing?"

"Y'know, that thing where you're, like, asleep… and stuff. And you're sleeping."

…

…

"You mean sleeping?"

"Yeah! That's it."

Aran couldn't help but politely stifle a laugh. He smiled and leaned back in his seat, looking at the ceiling. "Leave it to you to brighten up any moment, Trent."

The three sat contently now, and watching the match was entertaining enough to keep them quiet. No sooner had Aran realized that Paris, Naru, and Jiece weren't with them, than he suddenly felt a familiar pull in the back of his mind. An aching pressure silently beat down on his mental stamina, and Aran nearly doubled over in his seat. A throbbing sensation slowly became more and more apparent to the white mage, as he began to perspire slightly. Not wanting to alarm his teammates, Aran held his upright position as best he could. He looked weakly out of the large, glass window that made up the front wall of the contender's box, but averted his gaze from the screens, as they now hurt his eyes.

Almost automatically, Aran noticed a grey and white figure standing amidst the crowd, staring directly at him displaying what seemed to be an all-too-familiar demented smile. Eriq… Eriq had again begun to torture Aran. But this time, Aran wasn't about to let him get away with it. Aran regained himself and stood, turning to Rinn. "Rinn, how much time do we have before our match comes up?"

Rinn pondered for a moment before responding. "Well, we're last… and judging by how long this one match is taking, I'd guess we'd be going in about two hours, around five o'clock."

"Good, that's plenty of time. I'll be back soon, guys… there's something I have to end."

Aran dashed out of the contender's box before either Rinn or Trent could say anything, regardless of the fact that Trent wasn't paying attention and could care less anyway. Rinn decided finally to accept Aran's abrupt exit and again relaxed himself on the cushioned bench. "Looks like it's just you and me, huh Trent?"

"Meh."

"RINN!!"

Rinn looked to the side to see Naru and Paris bursting through the door that Aran had recently left through. "Jiece has locked himself in the room and won't come out for the fight, we need you to help!" Naru blurted.

Rinn cocked and eyebrow with confusion. "Alright, first of all: that sucks for you guys… and secondly, why do you need my help?"

"He enchanted the door with a bardic spell, it has some form of protect on it, so Paris and I can't break through it with physical attacks."

"Ah, so it is magic that you seek. Let's go then, but fast, because I think you guys have your match coming up soon."

"Exactly."

Rinn turned to Trent. "Coming?"

"Nah."

"Right."

As the three left the room in a hustle, Trent sat alone and, of course, bored. He brushed his bangs back, only to have them fall back in his face, unruly and scarlet as always. "Aran runs off to 'finish' stuff, and Jiece locks himself in a room… sometimes I wonder if I'm the only normal person here."

But just as Trent said these words…

**SHA-VOIP!**

And Trent disappeared in a cloud of green ones and zeros.

--

Dieh and Jackson hid, heart rates off the charts, behind a large slab of rock. Hiding, of course, from the repeated "holy" spell of Celeste's conjuring. The earth under and around the two shook with each explosion of white light not too far behind them, eating away at the stone as the rock itself spewed bits of itself amidst Dieh and Jackson. A device strapped to Dieh's wrist began to beep profusely. Jackson leaned over to see, finding an odd device.

"That's a really weird wrist-time glyph."

"It's called a watch, I saw one in Earth and made one… and apparently it's 3 o'clock… damn!"

"Why? What happens at three?" Jackson asked as a particularly large stone chip decided to peg him in the back of the head.

"I programmed 'the tower' to turn itself on and start running God of War 2 so I could start playing it back in the dorm… I figured we'd be done and back by now."

"Oh… hey, that reminds me, you remember the time Trent got trapped in all those games that one day? That was hilarious."

Dieh would've smiled at the humorous memory, had the top of his head not been grazed by five or so small rocks at the time. "Yeah, I remember that… you know, I don't think I remember ever fixing that."

"Fixing what?"

"You know, making it so that Trent couldn't go back to the video game world."

"Oh… so you mean that he could do it whenever he wanted?"

Dieh thought for a short moment. "No, I'm pretty sure it'd still be an involuntary process… but the chances of that happening twice are about one in one million.

--

Trent awoke in a world of chaos, destruction, and death. All around him, dead men in the armor of Spartans lay bloodied and cold, and warriors of all kinds raged in battle where the dead were not blocking the way. Trent instinctively reached for his sword to defend himself, only to find that he now had two large, curved blades attached to chains that were wrapped around his forearms instead. From out of nowhere, he heard a familiar narrator bellow a familiar phrase:

"You are Kraytos. You are the God of War."

Trent looked at his new armor, at the city around him, at the carnage, the soldiers, the bodies, and finally, Athena's blades around his arms. He looked up and smiled with a feeling of both awesomeness and joy. "Bitchin'." Was all he said.

--

Alucard had reached his destination no more than two hours ago. Alucard was a demon of leadership, not one to be controlled. Sure, he was grateful for Sephiroth's support during the time of his resurrection. But frankly, he'd awoken and re-gained enough of his power to know that he no longer wished to live under the finger of another.

Upon arriving, Sephiroth already knew of Alucard's feelings towards the situation. Alucard jumped off of the stirrup of his necromantic scorpion and stood in front of Sephiroth's citadel. He smiled and raised his arm up, hand catching the wind in the dry air. After waiting a few moments, Alucard's weapon materialized above him and dropped, being caught soon after and gracefully by the demon lord. He brought the large, stone wheel behind his back and let go, keeping it suspended a centimeter away from him with his mind.

With the circle of scythes behind him, Alucard again threw his hand into the air above him, this time catching a sheet of black, silk cloth. He dropped the materialized item this time directly over him, and it stuck to his skin as it draped him, keeping him hidden from view. The cloth began to close in on him, becoming tighter and tighter until every air bubble had escaped and the cloth itself covered ever detail of his figure. Suddenly, in a flash of light and a cloud of shrouding, pitch-black smoke, Alucard now stood clothed in thick, loose-fitting black pants, and a long, open black coat that came down to his feet. The border of said cloak was a piercing white, and the black chain-mail hauberk beneath it worked well the rest of the attire.

"The robes always did trip up a bit…" He said.

Alucard stood in front of the entrance to the citadel for a bit longer, the deep orange sun beating down on the landscape behind him. The wind of the desert plains began to pick up, as it always did at dusk, and started to kick up sand… just what Alucard had been waiting for. A particularly large cloud of sand, speeding towards Alucard, was met with a mere "stop" hand motion from the macabre figure.

Every grain of sand stopped dead in its tracks, hovering in mid-air. Alucard made a wispy, swirling motion with his hand, and the grains of sand set themselves an equal distance away from each other, in a large, box-like pattern. At the same speed as Alucard slowly clenched his fist, the box of sand began to tighten up.

He held the position for a moment before the fist burst open into a flat palm, and thusly the grains of sand shot forward like bullets, colliding with the stone walls of the citadel with the forceful sound of a small explosion behind each hit. A small wind went by, shifting the "decorations" of the walls slightly.

More than seven hundred stone sentries fell to the ground in unison, each with a single hole between their eyes the size of a grain of sand.

--

**Why is the chapter (again) delayed, even after I said I got my creativity back? Well, two words: Spring Break. This more or less officially ends my list of excuses… so I'll have to actually start trying again… heh.**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	39. Hell no, I won't go!

A little public service announcement here… though I didn't realize it, Hero Academy became one year old two months and eight days ago. Cool stuff, eh? To think this whole thing was to originally be just a one-shot story. Surprisingly, it seems that it's become a 30+-shot story, so that certainly is a nice thing to hear.

It's been fun giving you guys some entertainment on the net for a little over a year now… if only a little. And I know I haven't been the best at keeping steady updates or anything like that, and that's something I hope to improve on.

And for those of you who read that last sentence twice, you heard correctly. It's definitely something I'm going to improve on, and to do so I can't just up and quit writing Hero Academy, can I? After another long and arduous process, I've finally come to a decision: to continue writing. One year seems to have gone by in a few days… here's to another year, maybe two.

The next installment should be up later today, maybe tomorrow. Until then, this has been Jiece talkin' to you… officially not signing out.

Cheers, Jiece.


	40. Endless Waltz, part 4

**URGENT WARNING: ****This chapter has a lot of Alucard… and this time, he is actually slightly amused… if at any point during this chapter, it gets too much for anyone to read, please e-mail me so I know where the limits should be on writing for Alucard. I will also e-mail you back a summary of the chapter so you don't miss out.**

**I'm really, seriously running out of things to mention and/or say in these author comments. But now hear this: Read the above warning… useful.**

Endless Waltz, part 4: Mind games with old friends.

For those of you who don't read author comments (I know you're out there), please read those above… useful stuff.

--

Another wraith fell as Alucard cut it down without a second thought, ignoring the cry for mercy. Alucard smiled and again holstered his circular stone weapon, continuing down the cold and empty corridors of Sephiroth's citadel. Inwardly, he wondered where Sephiroth was hiding his organic minions that he usually decided to use. It wasn't long until Alucard's question was answered with a squad of human berserkers upon turning the corner.

All equipped with an over-large weapon of some sort, like a giant axe, great sword, broad staff, or otherwise, and dressed in adamantine plate armor, the five berserkers foolishly thought they could defeat Alucard. The axe warrior was the first to strike, dashing at the brooding figure with the great weapon above his head. Alucard turned slightly to face the group and the attacked directly, and held his arms out to invite the assault. The others began to charge behind the axe wielder as Alucard was inwardly laughing at the pitiful strike.

The axe was brought down to Alucard's skull at a speed not thought possible for such a heavy weapon, and shattered like glass upon striking, leaving not even a scratch on Alucard. He smirked at the horrified expression on the human's face while the berserkers behind him stopped in fear. Alucard lifted his arm and put a hand on the axeman's shoulder; he drew his close and whispered in his ear: "You'll do."

The berserkers all immediately began to flail about in agony. Unfortunately for them, berserkers were trained to never faint or black out from sudden pain, and these five were trained well. Large, rounded boils began to break out amongst them, some being blinded by the searing hot pain near their eyes. The axeman's back arched to an unsettling degree as his back of his armor was punctured from the inside by what seemed to be spinal ridges. One swordsman in the corner instinctively tried to run himself through with his own blade to escape the festering swells, but Alucard made sure that didn't happen. With a mere thought from Alucard, the blood temperature around the swordsman's hand skyrocketed to a literally flaming degree, melting not only the surrounding flesh and muscle, but the sword at well. With nothing but the bones of the hand showing, they received a coating of melted steel from the now-oozing sword hilt.

The torture continued for about five minutes, Alucard gaining strength from every cry, scream, and plea for death. One berserker's kneecaps reversed themselves, and the legs below them broke themselves clean in half. Another's skull began to compress itself, crushing the inside of his head into a condensed mass. Finally Alucard grew impatient and sat down amidst the horribly deeds. "That's enough fun for now, free yourselves."

Immediately every dying man fell flat on their faces, and the skin of their backs ripped in unison. Their skeletal structures had been possessed with ease by Alucard, and pulled themselves out of their fleshy prisons. One by one, the bones of the five arose from the muscles and skin of their former bodies, brushing off the remaining bits of meat from their bones. All five lined up before Alucard, awaiting his orders.

"You on the far left, take the two daggers from your former body and scout the area ahead, and come back at the first sight of defense. You to the right of him, wait at the entrance of the hallway that the scout will be in and kill anyone that isn't an undead. You in the center, you broke your legs to pain the human… find some rounded stones that you can use as braces between the two parts so you can at least walk. And for you two at the end, stay here so I may teach you the ways of an undead priest… even I need healing occasionally."

The five skeletons saluted their master and went off to do their respective duties. _The makings of something great…_ Alucard thought to himself.

--

Sephiroth reclined in his throne and cackled weakly. "So you really believe you can just waltz in here and take my citadel, Alucard? How amusing." He stood up and walked slowly down the steps of his alter-like throne area. Realizing that Alucard was listening in on him from afar, Sephiroth continued. "But you and I both know the punishment for going against a superior officer, now don't we?"

_It's a shame you won't believe alive to enforce it. _Sephiroth heard in his mind. _Once I'm done with the next few halls, I believe I'll reach the inner sanctum, correct?_

"So you remember the construction of the building even after your death so long ago? I'm quite impressed with you, I must say. I'll tell you what, I will let you live through this with the minimal punishment if you stop this now and never come back armed again."

There was a pause in the conversation. Sephiroth got the feeling that Alucard was laughing hysterically wherever he was. Finally he responded a minute later. _I cannot believe that after everything you've seen me do to your forces today, you still honestly can imagine your coming out of this alive. Listen to me closely, Sephiroth… you will die today, and there's no avoiding that. In fact, let me reverse your offer… if you surrender now, I'll use my necromancy to bring you back as a foot-soldier. How does that sound, "Master"?_

Taken aback by this bold speech, Sephiroth physically took the recoil and stood his ground. "Then the offer is null and void, you traitorous imp! If you're so willing to kill yourself, I'll personally make sure you're sent to only the most torturous and darkest corner of the underworld after your demise for such words!"

Sephiroth again searched for Alucard's position in the citadel's underground tunnels, being unpleasantly surprised by how far he'd gotten amidst the conversation. For the first time in his life, Sephiroth felt a slight pang of insecurity. Quickly brushing it away, Sephiroth called for his beastmaster. A stubby, sinewy goblin ran forward from the depths of the dimly lit corridor and saluted his master. "What do you wish of me, Master?"

"Send them out."

…

The goblin looked slightly confused. "Send what out, Master?"

Sephiroth looked back and shot him an angry look. "The creatures you train, goblin… all of them."

"ALL of them?!"

"Every. Last. One."

--

Aran sprinted after Eriq, down the seemingly endless pathways throughout the coliseum. The corridors got darker and darker as Eriq's form became increasingly hard to make out. "Stop!" Aran shouted in futility. Aran could feel his lungs banging against the inside of his chest as air became harder to breathe, his body slowly giving way to the fatigue. It was then that Aran realized that he and Eriq had been running in a complete circle around the coliseum on a slight downward slope, and that by now they must be a hundred meters below it. With a stroke of genius, Aran decided to take advantage of the slope, and stopped briefly. He held out his hands, palms up, and concentrated. "Reflect!"

A clear barrier of interlocking, hexagonal shapes appeared in front of him, normally to be used for reflecting spells and projectiles with the use of its distinct lack of friction. Aran, behind that side that actually reflected, pulled a chunk of the spell out from the rest of it and set it on the ground. "Thank Yevon for white magic."

With the friction-less side to the ground, Aran backed up. And with a running start, he leapt forward, onto the segment of the spell, acting simply as a snowboard. Aran shot forward at a pace much faster than that of his running, positive he would catch Eriq within the minute. Unfortunately for Aran, Eriq had other plans.

In the darkness, Aran could barely make out a new object in the distance. Only when it was a foot away from his face was Aran able to see the thick vine stretching from wall to wall at face level. Aran ducked quickly, feeling a few of his hairs ripped off after they got stuck on the plant. _Holy… those things are like fly paper!_ Aran turned back to his front in time to dodge yet another vine, this time placed from ceiling to floor.

Two more appeared, in both directions. Aran ducked and veered accordingly, only to be confronted by a couple of the meddlesome vines at ankle and chest level. With a heroic dive between the two, Aran was able to avoid them, but at the price of landing back on the reflect board with his chest. Continuing on at a speed no less than 60 miles an hour, Aran sorely attempted to get back on his feet, immediately finding himself doing the limbo under increasingly lower placed vines.

Aran was pushed further and further down as his speed increased. _Maybe this wasn't the best of ideas…_ he thought to himself. Finally he was pushed too far and forced onto his back. The vines continued to find themselves at lower and lower levels, until finally the last vine managed to snag onto Aran's white mage's robes. With the his ferocious momentum, Aran was pulled feet-first from his robes, still rocketing down the corridor at speed rivaling 70 miles an hour, without the reflect board.

Aran and the flooring finally collided, sending Aran skidding away on his back, protected only by a plain white undershirt. Flopping along like a rock skipping across a pond, Aran slowly came to a stop; battered, cut, and bruised heavily. Flat on his face, Aran weakly tried to bring himself up. Managing only to bring himself up to his elbows, Aran, breathing heavily from the recoil, spit onto the ground, noting the distinct taste of blood. "Heh…" Aran was able to cough, "so much for the robes…" He finally managed to bring himself onto one knee. "At least I got to keep the pants… that would've been awkward."

"Yes, it would have."

Aran suddenly found the strength in his legs once more and leapt to his feet. "Eriq! Where are you?!"

"Take a wild guess based on where my voice is coming from." Eriq's voice sounded, coming from all directions in mockery.

"Very funny, Eriq. Now how do you know all of these things about me?! Who are you and what do you want from me?!" Aran shouted, frantically turning in one direction to another, not wanting to be ambushed.

"Hmph, you disappoint me, Aran. Are we done playing the finding game already?"

"Just show yourself, coward!"

Laughter from every direction ensued. "Alright Aran, look to your right."

Aran did so quickly, only to be met by "your other right."

Aran again turned, this time in the opposite direction, and found himself face-to-face with a fully animated skeleton dressed in Eriq's clothing. The jaw slacked wide open and the voice again emitted. "Good to finally see that surprised yet horrified expression on your face again. From what I've learned of you from studying you, you never seem to lose confidence very often… this is a rare treat. You're very much like your mother in that way, you know."

Aran instinctively reached for his staff, remembering shortly afterwards that it was with his robe. Instead, out of rage, Aran punched through the skeleton's open mouth and into the wall behind it, pinning it down. "Who are you and how do you know these things about me, damnit!"

The skeleton lost its necromantic force and slumped in Aran's grip, completely limp. A voice unknown to Aran now let itself be heard. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to take this one question at a time? If not, then here's the deal… as for how I know these things, it's because of who I am. And as for whom I am?"

Aran felt a hand grip his shoulder from behind. He whirled around and was met with a thin man only slightly taller than himself. The shoulder-length silver hair of the man was in a style similar to Aran's, though a different color. He laughed at Aran's confused and shocked expression.

"I'm Yazoo. I'm your father."

--

**Well, that's it for the week folks. Final exams are coming up in less than a week, so don't expect much. Actually, knowing how much I enjoy not studying for these things, I'll probably write anyway. And as stated before, here's to another year of Hero Academy!**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	41. Endless Waltz, part 5

Endless Waltz, part 5: the plot thickens again…

--

With a score now of nine to nine, the target practice round became an epic struggle between the Leonhart and Braska teams. Dieh and Celeste were caught in a stand-off of hand-to-hand combat in one corner, while Brendan was busy fending off Jackson's summoned Ramuh. Mina, meanwhile, was busy making her way towards the last target, as was Brantley.

Ramuh belted Brendan smartly across the face with his rounded staff only to have it grabbed by the defender shortly afterwards and pulled from his grip. Brendan adjusted his grip on the oversized staff and smacked Ramuh with a similar face-based strike, and another, and another. Ramuh fell to the ground in exhaustion, and Brendan took the opportunity to make a downward stab at Ramuh, impaling him with his own weapon. Just as Ramuh disappeared and Jackson was left defenseless, Dieh dropped from high above and hit Brendan with a downward assault of his wrench, connecting directly with the back of Brendan's head.

He looked up, panting, next to the now-unconscious defender and smiled at Jackson. "You owe me?"

"Yeah, I'd say so."

Dieh suddenly reared backwards and fell onto his back, narrowly dodging a blast of holy energy. "Take care of her and we're even!" he said quickly.

Jackson readied himself, finding it useless five minutes later, at which time both he and Dieh were lying in abstract positions across the floor. Jackson lifted himself up onto one knee. "Ow…" He looked over to Dieh, who was leaning onto his wrench for support, also only onto his knees. "Dieh, do you remember your summoning training at all?"

Dieh looked over to him. "Well yeah, it's only been like two weeks..." Dieh's voice drifted off when he realized what Jackson was suggesting. "Summon fusion?"

"Shiva and Veyga?"

"You bet."

Dieh rose up with the last of his strength just in time to feebly block another one of Celeste's blasts. Slowly boring into Dieh's large wrench, the defense wouldn't hold for long. Jackson ran up behind him and rammed the other side of the wrench with the blunt end of his staff, knocking both the wrench and holy spell away. Celeste dodged the reflected spell, but her leg was pelted by the wrench and she fell to the floor. Both the summoner and former summoner grabbed onto Jackson's staff.

"Summon fusion: Veyga and Shiva to make…" they both bellowed as the staff began to glow with a bright, bluish light, "Arcalypso, demon of ice!" From the ground below them, a great pillar of ice arose. It rose high above the ground, nearly touching the roof of the building, and began to shed large chunks of itself. The pillar started to take the shape of a snake, and thusly Jackson and Dieh soon stood atop the head of a giant, ice-carved cobra.

Celeste looked up at the monstrous block of ice and blinked. "Damn."

The snake ran itself face-first into the area of the ground that Celeste was on, burrowing into the earth and taking Jackson, Dieh, and Celeste with it. Jackson and Dieh covered themselves behind a ridge on the snakes head, unfortunately not escaping some of the flying debris. Once Arcalypso had dug its full body length into the ground, it turned upwards and surfaced soon afterwards on the other side of the arena.

Arcalypso shattered into a cold, white mist as it surfaced, and left the three valiant fighters on the edge of the opening it had left. Dieh coughed up a clot of dirt and Jackson attempted to get the pebbles out of his hair, both soon finding Celeste face-down on the ground not far from them. Jackson stared for a bit. "I don't think she'll be waking up from that for a good while…"

Dieh tossed the dirt clot he'd recently released from his throat at the unconscious body. "Try to auto-life that, jerk."

Suddenly both Dieh and Jackson had the focus of their attention re-directed to the very back of the room. Drawn by the repeating sound of metal clashing against metal, they turned to see Mina valiantly defending the final target, under a rain of throwing knives from Brantley. Through the gap between her two raised shields, Mina noticed them. "How about a little help here?!" She said, just as a knife found its way through the gap and into her shoulder. Mina shifted her footing in pain, wanting to pull out the weapon, but knowing that to drop her guard would only invite more injuries. "As in **right now**, maybe!?"

Dieh bent down and flipped the "on" switch on the sides of his shoes and turned to Jackson. "You go help Mina and I'll get Brantley."

"Deal."

Dieh sprinted up the empty air as though climbing a staircase, trying to get up as high as possible to find Brantley. He managed barely to get higher than one of the floating obstacles before one of the throwing knives was flung in his direction, missing his skin, but impaling the bottom corner of his shirt. "Holy heck!" Dieh stepped jumped up as another came flying towards him, barely missing his foot. "How can you throw things at both of us?!" he shouted.

"I hate two hands, don't I?"

Dieh turned around to see Brantley a mere four or so feet away, prepared to strike. Before Dieh could react, Brantley jabbed him quickly in the throat, causing Dieh to double over, clutching his neck. Brantley elbowed his back while it was exposed, knocking him to the ground. He gripped Dieh's hair tightly and pulled him up with his left arm, and then roundhouse kicked him across the face with the opposite leg. Dieh fell to the base of the room head-first, thus canceling the gravity effect of his shoes and leaving him free to collide with the hard stone.

Dieh opened his eyes and pulled himself up; noticing specifically that everything was unusually blurry. He wiped his eyes on his sleeve, thinking that he might have some dust in them, but instead found blood on the white cloth. "For the love of…" Dieh mumbled under his breath, only now realizing how much his left eye hurt, "he kicked me in the freakin' **eye**…" Dieh again heard the familiar sound of the knife-based assault and pulled himself up onto his elbows. "I wanted to save this for later, but screw it… I'll make a new one."

"Mina! Total shield!" he yelled to the defender, who then commenced to contain both herself and Jackson in the completely spherical defense. Brantley looked back from his perch on one of the floating platforms and saw Dieh standing weakly, reaching into his jacket.

"Why the hell are you still conscious?" he asked himself, pulling out a vial from his pants pocket. _This'll take care of you…_ Brantley thought to himself as he began to pour the poison onto a particularly keen-edged knife. Dieh, meanwhile, finished his rummaging and revealed a fist-sized sphere of steel, with a single red button located on the top.

With the last of his strength, Dieh was able to lob the heavy device up within twenty feet of Brantley. "Dodge **this**!" he yelled before diving for cover behind a large, broken barricade. Dieh, disregarding the hefty stone wall he was behind, covered his head and laid on the ground, wanting to put as much room between him and the ball as possible. Soon after it had neared Brantley, Dieh, Jackson, and Mina heard a variety of noises from their various covers.

"What the?"

**CHK-BEEP!**

"HOLY!"

**K'TUNK!**

**KASHINK!**

**KASHINK! KASHING! KASHING!**

**KASHKAHSKSASHINGASIHKSSKASHGINKASHAINSHKSAHIKG!**

…

Dieh looked up from his cover to see more than what he expected. "It's okay guys, it got Brantley," he called to his friends across the room, "probably got the target too."

Mina detached the two halves of the spherical defense and let them shrink back down to regular size, noticing that they were covered almost completely by countless amounts of small black needles no larger than a construction nail. The needles took up nearly every tiny space of room on the shields, leaving almost none of the scarlet red they were colored to be seen. Looking around the room, she saw that everything that was facing the device was now completely colored a pitch black, covered in the piercing needles.

"Holy hell, Dieh… what was that?"

Dieh smiled as he walked over to his friends, hovering an inch above the ground for fear of piercing his own feet on the mass. "I call it the hedgehog grenade… I saw a lesser version of it in a video game and decided to, uh, modify it. What do you think?"

Jackson and Mina were still captivated by the site and continued to crane their necks to view the whole area. "It's uh…" Mina stuttered, "Effective, if anything."

In the midst of the conversation, the three heard what sounded like a crumbling stone. They turned back to where Mina and Jackson just were to see the final target completely disintegrated. Dieh laughed in triumph, "Two birds with one stone, hot damn!"

"Wait a second, Dieh," Jackson said, "that's not one of those needles."

"Wha?"

Jackson was indeed right, as the last remaining part of the target, the center, was deeply impaled by the poisoned knife that Brantley was going to use on Dieh. Dieh sat and stared blankly, mouth gaping wide open, at the sight. Jackson continued the observation, "he must've hit it before the grenade went off… we lost after all."

Dieh then completely lost it. "**What the HELL!?**" he shouted as he threw his wrench onto the ground, which bounced up slightly and hit him in the knee. "OW!" he screamed, falling onto one knee to tend to the other. Unfortunately, the shoe on the leg that he was leaning on did not register him standing onto anything since he was on his knee, and thusly shut off and let the leg collide with the now razor-sharp flooring. "OH FOR **FU-**!"

--

The three were teleported out of the arena and back into the waiting area, where no one but Mina and Jackson could hear Dieh's angry ranting through the soundproof walls.

--

**Hope you all enjoyed that… Dieh was pretty fun to write for right there, as you can tell. I was mostly trying to get across the usefulness of a gadgeteer, because I know it can seem like someone who just fiddles around with gadgets can be pointless. Also, if you couldn't tell, Dieh uses a wrench about the same size as a two-handed sword… and he uses it the same way as one would ****use**** a two-handed sword… just in case some of you think it's a little monkey wrench.**

**Anyway, I'm gone now… almost done with exams, so I'll see what I can't cook up in the next week or so. I'm generous like that.**


	42. Endless Waltz, part 6

Endless Waltz, part 6: Whatever happened to Jiece?

--

Rinn slowly opened his eyes, finding himself in a curious situation. All around him was a stark white setting, completely devoid of any interruption. Rinn brought himself to his feet and tried to remember how he got to this place. When he attempted to bring the thought about, he drew a blank. "Where the hell am I?"

"Obscenities, Rinn? Really, you're just like your father was when you were his age… I had to break out the parental wrath quite a few times for his little tantrums, you know."

Rinn turned quickly to find someone he never thought to see directly behind him. He, of course, was not as recognizable as Rinn could previously say he was, as he was missing a definitive article of his typical garb. "Hi grandpa…" Rinn was able to muster.

"I hope you're enjoying the hat, Rinn." Vivi smiled at his comment, not getting very many opportunities to joke around where he was now. Contrary to how Vivi looked as a nine year old when he joined up with the great hero Zidane, he stood just a bit over six feet tall, about half a foot higher than Rinn. "You're looking well." Vivi added as he studied his grandson's expression of utter confusion and amazement. "Is there a problem, Rinn?"

Rinn blinked fervently and shook his head once he'd regained himself. "No, grandpa, it's just that… I didn't really expect to see you for… a while."

Vivi chuckled and patted Rinn's shoulder with a respecting fondness. "I could say the same thing, Rinn, but let me get right down to business with you, for I don't have much time to talk." Vivi brought a hand up and spoke, "ardouramus te dokrist." Rinn looked at his grandfather with confusion and was met with a simple "I'll explain in the future."

Before Rinn could inquire further, he lost his ability to speak as the empty space began to change. The entire room became dark, and eventually black. The only light came from a small amount of tiny lights, scattered about the blackness. Vivi frowned and began to mutter a few more strange words, occasionally letting slip an understandable phrase, such as: "this dang thing never gets it right the first time."

The lights began to pass by and fade into the distance, replaced by new ones and sometimes giant globes of light. The scene whizzed by as though it was traveling somehow, and Rinn began to realize that the lights were actually stars. "Grandpa…"

"Yes?"

"Tell me something…"

"What is it?"

…

"Are we in space?"

Vivi again let out a heart chuckle. "No Rinn, think of this room like a giant set of eyes. We can see the area around wherever we tell the room to look at, but the only problem is that sometimes these eyes are a little off… Ah! Here we are."

Rinn looked on as the familiar land mass known as Graphia appeared in the distance and began to move closer to him. Soon the view settled on the human continent, then on the lush northern areas of said continent, and eventually Rinn could see the Hero Academy speeding towards him in the distance. "I'm going to assume that whatever we're looking for at the Hero Academy just happens to tie in directly with the reason or reasons for why I'm here?"

Vivi continued to keep an eye on their position, arms folded. "You don't beat around the bush much, do you?"

"Not if I can help it."

--

**Now we take you to the scene a mere ten minutes earlier…**

--

Rinn, Paris, and Naru marched up to their dormitory entrance from the coliseum to attempt to get Jiece out of the room; a task which could not be accomplished by non-magical means. Rinn walked up to the door and knocked harshly. "Jiece, why the hell did you lock yourself in our dormitory?"

There wasn't a response from the other side.

"Jiece, this is ridiculous… what are you doing?"

Still nothing.

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you, man! Fire!"

Rinn shot a sweltering ball of flame from the palm of his hand and into the shielded door, forgetting that he was at nearly a point blank range and that fire spells tend to explode. While the door flew backwards and into the room, Rinn was shot in the opposite direction and collided with Naru on the way back. She roughly pushed Rinn off of her a stood up. "If we weren't all in a rush right now, I'd probably kill you."

Rinn dusted off his hat and worked his way back onto his feet, unable to resist a snide comeback. "Why, did I ruin your hair?"

A vengeful silence took hold of the two for a brief moment while Naru gathered herself. "No, actually, it's because that hurt, and no one likes to be hurt." Naru slapped Rinn smartly on the back of his head. "No more gender stereotyping for you."

Both were brought back from their fight upon hearing the sound of a frightened whimper. Paris, as Rinn and Naru soon found out, reacted as anyone would to the situation presented to them. The smoke had cleared and the door had been blown away, revealing a disturbing scene.

Jiece's eyes were glazed over and bloodshot, staring straight forward as though in some form of trance. He stood with his knees slightly bent, slumping over a great deal. In addition to the odd positioning and looks, the shirt he normally wore under his bardic vest was gone, revealing a large gash where his sternum was, directly in the center of his chest. He smiled with an odd aura of demonic influence and drew a rapier from the hilt at his waist.

Beside him was Astos, still sporting his new outfit of black and orange, who looked as thought he'd had plenty of time to wait for Rinn, Paris, and Naru. "Welcome home, heroes."

"Astos!?" Rinn shouted. "What the hell is going on!?"

He smiled widely with the same evil vibe that Jiece gave off. "This is it, you three. The Miasma is close at hand, and we can't have you ruining things. Of course, we know that you three specifically may not be great heroes one day, but who'd want to risk it? Those who would stand in our way are being taken care of now… I hope you all said something nice to Gana the last time you saw him, by the way."

The three young heroes drew their respective weapons as the verbal melee continued. "Who are you and-!"

"What have I done with Astos?" he paused to laugh, "every hero says the same thing. It took many years of rigorous training to make sure that none could detect my demonic aura, but I eventually was able to do so and apply for a little job here. In fact, almost everyone in my dorm when I came to the academy was a demon just like me… we all graduated the same year, and all applied to become advisors. Naturally, knowing how kind hearted our dean of students was, how could he resist the temptation to get us all advisory positions in the same year? After all, as far as Gana knew, none of us had seen each other since graduation, so wouldn't we all be surprised to see each other?" Again Astos chuckled. "Unfortunately for our aging friend, his fondness of nice surprises just happened to be the main tool of his death… surprise right back at him.

"But onto the point," Astos said as he began to slowly draw his sword from its sheath. "What better way to assure an eternal miasma than to destroy the main sources of heroes… from the inside. We have operatives on every continent, and in every training facility. We even have many within the depths of the government itself… a plan that has been in the making for over three hundred years will finally come to pass, and the glory of Sephiroth shall be known to all who live beneath him."

Astos and Jiece both took a battle stance and readied their blades. "And so I'm afraid this is where your story ends, heroes. And last words?"

Rinn gazed forward with determination, attempting to mask his feelings of worry and doubt. But as Rinn prepared to defend himself, he suddenly felt a slight twist of anger. This feeling was easier to take than the doubt, and Rinn welcomed it, letting it take him over. He clenched his staff tighter, and felt his feet take a more firm stance. "Naru…" he said through clenched teeth as he felt the anger become hate. "Paris…" he added, slowly feeling the confidence that the hate brought him. "Get out of here and find Verikk. I'll keep them here for now."

"Rinn, you can't-!"

"I. Said. Go."

Without turning back to them, or even giving a word of reassurance, he was finished warning them; "Now."

Astos laughed as Paris and Naru left to retrieve the reinforcements. "I hope you're ready to die even more quickly, then, Rinn." It was then that he got an idea. "Jiece, why don't **you** show Rinn what the power of the miasma has done for you."

Without saying a word, Jiece dash across the room towards Rinn, prepared to stab with his keen rapier. Rinn's hate became even greater as he realized Jiece was merely a puppet in Astos' hands. At only three feet from a killing blow, time unexpectedly slowed down from Rinn's point of view. _I remember this… from the tower of power…_ Rinn thought as an echo sounded through the room.

"Anger is a dangerous thing, Rinn…" he heard the voice of his grandfather say from every direction. "You can channel it malevolently or benevolently… you must always make the right decision."

Rinn calmed down slightly at hearing these words sound through his head. He remembered the time his grandfather had passed this knowledge on to him. _He's right… I must choose the right path, but I can't forgive Astos either…_ The argument raged in his head briefly, still overcome with the lust for revenge he was feeling. He was interrupted, however, by the fine point of Jiece's rapier. Time had resumed its normal speed, and Rinn gasped in pain as he was pinned to the wall by the blade. He grasped it, deeply embedded into his shoulder, and saw Astos' satisfied expression out of the corner of his eye.

For the first time, Rinn lost his sense of moral. Lost his sense of right and wrong. Lost his hope, his mind, his ability to feel. Rinn lost himself to the anger at that moment.

Rinn tightened his grip around the rapier to the point that his fingernails broke the skin of his palm, and ripped it both from his shoulder and the wall. He smashed the hilt into Jiece's shocked face, and carved another gash to match the one he already head into his arm. As he stumbled back, Rinn sweep-kicked Jiece, knocking him off of his feet. While still off the ground, Jiece was elbowed in the face at the same point at which Rinn drove his knee into his back. Jiece flipped backwards from the double-hit blow and his head met the flooring, knocking him out instantly.

Astos cocked an eyebrow as he noticed Rinn's shoulder wound closing up within seconds of the retaliation. Rinn stared with an impenetrable rage at Astos. "I choose the malevolence over mercy, Astos…"

Rinn made it across the room in a fraction of a second and lunged at Astos' neck. No sooner had he gripped his fleshy target with his now claw-like hands than the sonic boom his speed had created caught up with both of them, sending the two bolting through the wall and outside of the academy.

They both began to fall the 30-story distance, Rinn continuing his assault the whole way down. Rinn latched his claws onto Astos' bruised face and catapulted him into the wall. Astos feebly attempted to grab onto the stone of the side of the academy, attempting to react quickly. _Faster than I thought…_ he said to himself, "Gravity!"

Astos' spell shifted the force of gravity around him, and he stood on the wall, completely sideways to anyone standing upright, as though it was the ground just below him. Rinn did the same in mid-fall, and landed on all fours. "You're **mine**, Astos!"

Another lightning-speed dash to Astos forced him to take on a defensive stance; rendered useless as Rinn again sunk his claw into the neck of his opponent. Rinn sprinted up the wall of the academy, holding Astos' head low to ground, and thusly dragging his face through yard after yard of solid stone at a speed nearing that of sound. They neared the stop of the wall, and Rinn cast another gravity spell as he leapt from the edge of the parapet. With gravity restored, Rinn, holding Astos' limp body, stood near the top of his jump, nearing 100 feet above the academy. Right at the very peak of the epic leap, Rinn brought Astos' face close to his own. "I will never forgive this."

Rinn wound up briefly, and then went into a quick 360 degree turn, tossing Astos, at the final degree, into the academy rooftop. "Firaga!" he shouted as he let the fiery wrath of his anger form itself into the powerful spell. Like a comet, the flame was thrown downwards at incredible speed and deadly accuracy, directly into Astos' form. Rinn fell from the altitude he'd obtained, right into the heart of the explosion. He landed, claws first, on Astos.

--

Rinn stared in disbelief at the darkened, bloodied figure that had Astos pinned to the ground with by his arms. "That's… me?"

Vivi walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Anger is a very dangerous thing, Rinn. This display is nothing compared to what it could do to you and those around you if this had occurred during a trance. In fact, if you hadn't told your friends to seek out Verikk, you probably would have turned on them first."

"But… b-but…" Rinn tried to stammer out, "how did this happen?"

Vivi snapped and the scene vanished, leaving only the blank, white surroundings as they previously were. "Rinn, it's time you learned more about who you are as a mage. You have to learn to control the power you have if you want to survive dangers such as these."

Still in shock, Rinn managed to nod and turned to his grandfather. "What's first?"

"The beginning, of course. You see, Rinn, when time first began, nothing we see today existed. The only things that existed in these times were the six basic elements… fire, water, earth, air, light, and darkness. They all drifted across the empty plain in typically characteristic patterns… the element of water flowed calmly along, while the element of earth moved slowly and with solid, firm movements. Eventually, these elements began to combine. No elements would ever completely become a whole new one, as that would disrupt the balance. Only a very small portion of an element would combine with another, and these combinations led to the creation of what we see today.

"For instance, fire and water became steam, whereas water and earth become mud. Depending on how much of each element is given, new forms can come about. We mages use this fact to our advantage… like if you want a water spell to have a bit more of a damaging effect, than you call on the element of earth to add some force behind it. While water still makes up a majority of the compound, but the little bit of earth adds a rough texture to the blow… do you understand?"

Rinn was taken aback slightly by the question and decided to answer honestly. "Well yeah, that's pretty much a basic principal of… existence. I'm pretty sure that a nine year old could understand that, grandpa."

Vivi cocked an eyebrow at Rinn's frank response. "Then you do not understand… allow me to continue. You see, going back to my previous point of interest, the six elements were not of equal power. The four basic elements used by mages today were significantly weaker than the remaining two. We mages tend to use fire, water, earth, and air much more frequently than light and darkness. Think about it for a moment, Rinn… have you ever wondered why the black mage class uses the four basic elements, whereas the other two elements have classes devoted specifically to them?"

"You mean like white mage and necromancer?"

"Precisely. This is because it takes one's entire body and soul devoted to the single element to grasp the full effect of it, unlike our four.

"But continuing on, as these elements continued to combine, the forces of light and darkness eventually combined; the two created, to be perfectly blunt, life. Eleven races of sentient beings were born from this union. Seven of these races take up the seven continents we know of today, and the four others were forced to seek refuge elsewhere."

"Why's that?"

"Well, the seven who lived on the continents were balanced beings. They were made up exactly of fifty percent dark power and fifty percent light… we are stable. However, two of the four outcast races were unbalanced, meaning one was of too much divine energy, and the other of too much dark influence. The remaining two were embodiments of the elements themselves, one hundred percent pure light or darkness, and incredibly powerful.

"Those of the seven normal races, if they so choose to become a type of spell caster, are able to wield the forces of the basic elemental powers solely because they themselves are made from stronger elements. Do you understand so easily now?"

"Not quite…" Rinn had to admit. "This is all a lot to take in and everything, but… what does this have to do with my training as a mage?"

Vivi smiled. "Well, I see you don't want to beat around the bush, then. Besides merely opening your eyes to what you and, indeed, we all are, I wanted to get you to realize something very important in this conversation… think about it, Rinn. What, in what I've said today, do I want you to understand?"

Rinn began to grow impatient. "Why does it matter? Can't you just tell me?!"

Vivi shook his head grimly and sighed. "If only I could, Rinn… but as part of your training as a great hero, you must find that out on your own. There is nothing I can do in this situation… this is how it's always been."

"But **why** is that!? **Why** does it have to be like that!? **What** are you trying to tell me that's so important, grandpa!? I don't understand!"

Vivi brought his hand up once more, the same way he had earlier, and winked at his grandson. "Too much has been said. I'm going to turn back the hands of time now, Rinn… I can only allow you to remember one thing besides the facts you've learned here today… that even the slightest change in the past can effect the present."

--

**SHTHIP!**

--

Rinn stumbled a bit and rubbed an aching spot on his head. Behind him, Paris and Naru stopped as well. "You okay?" Naru asked.

"Ugh… yeah," Rinn responded, "my head just kinda feels… overloaded or something."

"Huh?"

"You know that feeling you get in class when you feel like you've learned too much in too short an amount of time and you get a headache? It's like that… but worse."

"Need an ice pack or something?"

"No, no, I'm good… let's just keep goin' and get Jiece outta the room." Rinn said, straightening himself out once more.

Rinn, Paris, and Naru marched up to their dormitory entrance from the coliseum to attempt to get Jiece out of the room; a task which could not be accomplished by non-magical means. Rinn walked up to the door and knocked harshly. "Jiece, why the hell did you lock yourself in our dormitory?"

There wasn't a response from the other side.

"Jiece, this is ridiculous… what are you doing?"

Still nothing.

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you, man! Fire!"

"No, no, wait!" a voice sounded from inside the room. "Clear the doorway!"

The three stepped out of the way as the door burst open and Jiece leapt from the room and landed with a slide on his knees, guitar held high in glory. He landed the pose and stood still for a moment, realizing no one was making a big deal. He stood up and turned around. "Aw c'mon, that was the most awesome powerslide ever and you know it!"

Rinn looked to the ground and sighed. "Jiece, why on earth would you lock yourself in the room just for that?"

…

"Dramatic effect? Besides, I got my lip pierced, see?"

"I **don't** care! If you weren't already late for your match, I would find the time to hurt you, but we have none, so **go**!"

"Fine then," Jiece said with a satisfied smile.

As the three left the area, however, they could not hear the heavily muffled cries for help from Jiece as he remained bound to the area above the doorway inside the room, a gravity spell keeping his mouth shut. _Damn you, Astos._


	43. Endless Waltz, part 7

Endless Waltz, part 7: Trickery

--

Sephiroth's final defense was a fortress inside of his fortress, an impenetrable building made of only the strongest materials. Alucard could feel Sephiroth's presence near him, and entered the final room of the citadel. A perfect cube, the room was two miles long, two miles wide, and two miles tall, held up by a series of incredibly thick and durable stone columns laid about fifty meters apart from each other. The fortress was in the dead center of the room, one mile away from each side.

From the darkness ahead, only two small points of light were visible. Alucard smiled as he thought of the enjoyable venture into the main chamber of Sephiroth's citadel. "One mile away from you, Sephiroth…" he said aloud, "can you feel my desire for vengeance?"

The two points suddenly became much more visible as the thousands of pillars holding the room up suddenly illuminated, each containing a small flame in the center. At the end of the now-brightened hallway was a rather large behemoth, its two curved horn points covered with silver tips. _I was wondering what those lights were…_ Alucard thought. Alucard snapped once and his favorite weapon appeared in his hand, the scythes tightened, sharpened, and ready to go. He stared the large beast down, not blinking for the entirety of the five minutes with a gaze that would shatter the very soul of an average man. He finally broke his gaze and smirked. "I see you've blinded your beast, Sephiroth… clever to let it rely completely on sense of sound and smell."

The Behemoth let out a tremendous roar that shook the very foundations of the hall, calling the dust to fall from the columns. It charged with full force towards Alucard, its jaw slack and tongue waving freely from its mouth. The pillars around it shattered as it ran by and the bases of the others shook with its force, giving the appearance that the behemoth itself from bringing the room down.

The great, slobbering beasts grew closer and closer to Alucard until finally, teeth bared like a set of daggers, it was close enough to strike. With another earth-shaking roar of fury, the beast brought itself down upon Alucard, immediately shattering its skull into hundreds of pieces upon contact. The now-dead body of the behemoth surged onward with the momentum it created with its powerful legs and front-flipped over the immovable form of the demon. It landed solidly on its own spine with a sickening cracking noise; its face caved in from the attack, and slowly became limp.

Alucard, without having moved since first seeing the behemoth, couldn't help but laugh at the pitiful attempt on his life. "That's a good one, Sephiroth, old friend… so I'm not even going to say that you have to do better…"

Alucard suddenly sensed a movement behind him and turned to catch the behemoth in another charge with his bare hands. Alucard looked into the deformed face of the beast as he held it back at a safe distance with both of his arms and found, amidst the cracked bones and bloodied fur, the feint glow of necromantic magic. _Pathetic._ Using only a fraction of his strength, Alucard brought the mass of bleeding flesh up above his head and catapulted it across the room, seeing it skip across the stone floor as a pebble skips across a pond surface.

No sooner had the undead behemoth finally stopped moving than Alucard pulled out a curved black katana from the sheathe resting on his side and thrust it into the air directly behind him, only moving his arm. He smirked once more, positive that Sephiroth continued to watch his every move with a cautious eye, and turned around and clamped his hand around the invisible entity he had stabbed, bringing it closer to him. "You call that stealth?"

A black lynx slowly became visible, hanging limply in Alucard's grasp, having been stabbed in mid-pounce. Alucard threw the body harshly onto the ground and turned towards the fortress. "This is what you give me, Sephiroth? Mere beasts?"

--

From inside the fortress…

--

Sephiroth laughed inwardly at Alucard's futile attempt at intimidating him. He responded within his own thoughts, knowing full well that Alucard was in his head as well. "You have trouble with my creatures, Alucard? Please forgive me for not purposely giving you an unfair advantage… I do know how much you enjoy changing my human-like slaves into your own undead minions."

"The reanimated bones of animals cannot even begin to think for themselves… this is the only reason I do not raise them from death. What use do I have with mindless lackeys?"

Sephiroth took a seat upon his thrown to continue the conversation. "Have you not been working with mindless lackeys for most of your life, Alucard?"

Alucard's laughter almost seemed to be coming from inside the room itself as he amused himself with the slaughter of more of Sephiroth's beasts. "And what do you know of my life, Sephiroth? Don't even **try** to pretend you know who I am. Thousands of nations and tens of thousands of years kneel before me in every moment of my mere existence. The earth crumbles with my wrath, and the sky shakes with my fury… you have no hope of understanding what you've gotten yourself into."

Sephiroth couldn't help but smile at his opponent's exaggerations. "Alucard, you are merely a pawn in a much greater game to me… I have been foiled but once, and by great heroes, no less. Tell me, if those equal to the gods themselves had to stop me once before, how do you believe that you can try to stop me now? If can but wound me once during this little tantrum of yours, you can consider that your victory."

Sephiroth suddenly felt very cold. The keen edges of two blades were now pressed against his neck, crossed against one another in a perfect "x" shape. He felt the strangely cold breath of Alucard brush against his ear as Alucard whispered.

"Two questions… does this count as a wound, and does this count as part of the 'tantrum'?"

**SLASH!**

Sephiroth fell to the ground with the sharp muscular spasm that followed, coughing up trace amounts of blood. "How…" he sputtered, "how did you… ugh…"

Alucard smiled and walked in a slow circle around his opponent. "You said just recently that those equal to the gods them selves once stopped you… quite the exaggeration, Sephiroth. We both know that the great heroes are not gods…" Alucard laughed quietly at this. "However, they are of considerable power… and it took more than one to defeat you. But do you think that they **could** defeat the gods? Oh no, that would be impossible."

"What are you cough getting at?"

Alucard frowned and kicked Sephiroth in the stomach while he was on his hands and knees, causing him to sing even lower, clutching his abdominal area in pain. "Do not interrupt me again, Sephiroth, or I will be forced to… enjoy this."

A silence filled the room until Alucard continued again. "Think of it this way, Sephiroth… you are lesser than a band of heroes, and the band of heroes is lesser than a god… so then how do **you** honestly believe you will walk out of here alive?"

Sephiroth suddenly leapt up and lashed out with his katana, only to have is blocked by Alucard's raised index finger, while he himself had not moved. "I'm pretty sure that goes under the category of 'interrupting', Sephiroth."

Sephiroth brought his sword back and lashed again from above; a blow met by very small scythe on the end of a chain, protruding from the ground near Alucard. "Is that all you can do?"

At this Sephiroth lost his temper and began slashing madly towards Alucard, paying no heed to the fact that he was being blocked over and over again. He pushed Alucard back further and further into the back of the room until they were almost at the back wall. "I slash am not hack afraid stab of you!"

The final stab was met in an unexpected way. Pinned to the back wall, Alucard's chest suddenly seemed to burst open. The flesh and chain mail had been torn away, revealing a large opening in Alucard's chest with no organs or bones. The gap was held open by Alucard's ribs, which jutted straight out and curved to a point towards the end, as though they acted as a set of teeth. The blade of Sephiroth's stab went right through the opening and was absorbed into the black abyss, almost taking his hand with it. Sephiroth stepped back with his eyes wide and mouth gaping in horror. Alucard smirked once more.

"You should be."

--

**Well, I'm back from vacation… two weeks long, so that's why I haven't gotten this out sooner. It would have been earlier anyway, but social activities got in the way… such as movie goings and birthday parties. Also, I'm sorry for the shortness of this chapter, it's mainly filler, but it opens it up for a HUGE segment that will probably make up two parts of this multi-part series. I'm out for now, I guess… and I'll try to update again before I go to camp.**

**Cheers, Jiece.**

**P.S. I somehow managed to literally break my eardrum and now I can't hear out of one ear… splendid.**


	44. Endless Waltz, part 8

Endless Waltz, part 8: "Intermission"

--

Jiece nearly ripped the door of the combatants' waiting area off its hinges as he nearly collapsed into a seat in the back. Rinn looked over to his sweating, gasping form and cocked an eyebrow. "Tough fight?"

Gasp wheeze "Shut… up…" cough.

"Figured so…"

Naru and Paris came into the room soon afterwards and seated themselves amongst their two other classmates. Naru was the first to submit an outburst. "Four letter word… it's what I currently am… guess."

"Dead?"

"Hurt, actually, but not a bad guess. Those guys are friggin' impossible to top."

Rinn turned his body to match the direction of his head, facing Naru. "Who'd you go up against again?"

Naru craned her neck upwards and leaned back a bit, grabbing the bottom of the bench to keep her balance. "Um… let me think for a bit. I think it was that group of three that they have…"

Rinn slumped a bit and gave her a "are you serious?" kind of look. "We're all split into groups of three, Naru; I don't really think that what you just said really qualifies as a description."

**FWAP!**

"Ow!" Rinn gasped as he rubbed the aching side of his face. "Where the hell did you get a poorly made and thought out fan?!"

"Pocket."

…

"I meant originally."

"Oh! Jiece gave it to me… I think it makes him feel somehow adequate when I actually use it."

Jiece flopped out of his chair and onto the floor, face first. The other three denizens of the room looked at his half-dead form for a bit before he finally raised a finger with a very small burst of strength. "I heard that…"

Rinn turned back to Naru. "Why is Jiece like that, exactly?"

"Why do you ask me?"

Rinn and Naru both looked at Jiece for just a bit longer after that. At this point he had somehow moved into the coolest and darkest corner of the room while remaining in the same face-down position. "Sleep…" he muttered as he curled up into a small bard-sphere.

"Somehow…" Rinn began as he looked away, "I don't think I'll get much of a response."

Naru nodded in agreement. "Guess not. Well, the thing is, he just suddenly went completely blank on us. One minute he was slashin' up a storm with that rapier of his and when we needed a bard spell, he just… failed. Not really sure why. Did you notice anything weird?" She finished up the statement by turning the table over to Paris, leaning on a support beam about three feet away from Naru.

Paris looked up from her feet and shook her head, "Nothing unusual, no."

Rinn temporarily lost his mind from the conversation to think a bit about the three who had recently entered the room. When he had first met Jiece, he was much like Trent, only he also seemed to have a lack of morale values… _but then_, Rinn thought, _when the time to save Aran and Verikk from Alucard came around, Jiece jumped on willingly._ This sudden lapse in enthusiasm seemed very odd to Rinn.

_Then there's Naru_, he thought. _She was some kind of energetic meet-and-greet machine not too long ago… glad she cooled down now that we've all become so easy-going around each other._

_Of course,_ Rinn continued, _if anyone has been changing over the time we've been here, it's Paris. I can remember a time when that question Naru just asked would've been answered with an 'um… well, I… err…' It's nice to see that some people are warming up as opposed to cooling down._

_But wait, I wonder if I've gone through any kind of process like this… that's kind of a weird thing to think. _"I guess it'd be kind of hard to figure out."

Naru and Paris both eyed Rinn quizzically, which he did not understand before realizing his last sentence was said out loud. "Oh!" he said, "the, uh, reason for Jiece's sudden loss of musical skill, I mean. It'd be pretty hard to figure out how or why that happened, yeah…" _Nice._

Rinn continued off of his rather blatant lie wondering why he even bothered to cover it up in the first place. "Have any of you guys seen Aran or Trent? Or Jackson, Dieh, and Mina for that matter?"

"Well, let me see… I think I saw Mina and Jackson in the crowd… they were particularly exuberant." Naru rolled her eyes as she remembered seeing a giant "thumbs-up" sign made of fire coming from Jackson's staff in the middle of her group's match. "But as for Trent and Aran, those two are your responsibility. Has Aran still not come back from his 'unfinished business'?"

"No, that's the strange thing… I just wonder what he went off to do."

"You don't wonder what Trent went off to do?"

Rinn stared blankly at Naru for about 20 seconds before he replied, "This is Trent we're talking about…" he said with a smirk, "he could be doing anything from making brownies to tracking down ghosts."

"Heh, I guess you have a good point."

Without warning, Jiece slumped his arms over the seat next to Naru and pulled himself up, speaking as he did so. "You know what…" he said, pausing to cough up what seemed to be a large wad of dust, "this place sucks for sleeping in."

"Why? Too much dust?"

Jiece used up his remaining strength and body weight to weakly slap Rinn's shoulder as he fell again. "No, too many dragons…"

…

…

"Right, Jiece… you actually might want to go back to the dorms, then… I hear we've been dragon free for two months now."

"Shut it." Jiece snapped as he sluggishly moved towards the door, "I was being sarcastic…"

Out of a combination of good timing, boredom, and curiosity, Rinn quietly cast a "sight" spell and stifled a laugh. Naru leaned over to him. "Did I miss something?"

Rinn quietly turned to her and whispered, making sure to be out of earshot of Jiece. "You won't in a sec, just watch the door." And sure enough, just as Jiece was about to reach for the knob…

**K'THUNK!**

Trent swung the door open with tremendous force, crushing Jiece between it and the wall. "Whatsup, mates?"

No one spoke, especially the now-unconscious Jiece, as Trent made his way over to the empty space between Naru and Rinn. This was mostly due to the fact that Trent had bent his sword and "extra sword" into barbed hook-shaped blades, which were attached to long chains, and had wrapped said chains around his wrists, keeping the blades close at hand. This was especially odd considering that he was wearing a stylish black fedora hat and sunglasses, completely with a blue suit and bright red tie. Rinn was the first to break the silence.

"I know we're all thinking it, so I'll just go ahead… what the hell are you **wearing**?"

"Combination of God of War, Phoenix Wright, and Elite Beat Agents… I don't understand it, and I don't want to. The fact is that I'm here for the match now, and I intend to fight beside you and Aran with the utmost diligence and spirit!"

--

Author comment: If this was an anime, this is the part where everyone but Trent suddenly gets a really exaggerated and silly expression to show how ridiculous what just happened was.

--

"Wow, Trent… that was actually… really well thought out."

"Yeah, I read it on a forum post before I came back… what does it mean?"

…

…

"Right, nevermind."

The conversation ended for a moment as everyone went off in their separate thoughts. This excluded Jiece, of course, as he was still unconscious and most likely bleeding internally.

_Well that's weird… then again, that's Trent, _thought Rinn. _I wonder if Jiece is okay, anyway. Feh, Aran can do something about it when he gets back, I don't really feel like getting up. Actually, maybe I should do something… Naru might be worried. Wait, what am I saying? If Naru was in the slightest bit worried, she wouldn't have laughed when he got hit, and wouldn't be sitting calmly here right now._

_But wait, should she be? They are technically goin' out, after all. Or wait, are they? They never really __**have**__ actually gone out… then again; we're not aloud outside the school grounds unless it's a school trip. Wait, how did I even get on this subject? I thought I was worried about Jiece… or was Naru worried about Jiece? No wait, I remember, no one is worried, right… then why am I reassuring myself about this? Why am I asking __**myself**__ questions about myself? Shouldn't I know this stuff about me? Wait, that was a question too!_

Rinn clutched the side of his head in the pain of confusion. _Ugh, great, now I've got a headache… that's exactly what I need before it's my turn in the arena. Especially considering that we're down by two points here. One more and we're gone… that sucks. And come to think of it, I'm not even that confident about this! Aran's gone and Trent is… Trent._

…

…

…

_Damnit._

--

"You!" Aran backed up nervously as he faced his sworn enemy: his own father.

"Me." Yazoo said with a feint smile.

"What the hell are you doing here and what's it going to take for me to get you out?!" Aran raised his fists, still without a staff.

"Aran, is that any way to greet your father?"

"You're no father to me, demon!"

At this Yazoo began to laugh heartily. "Demon?" he managed to ask, almost out of breath from laughter, "honestly? Do not forget that you are demon as well, boy."

Aran's eyes widened as his guard dropped slightly. He ground his teeth together and straightened himself out. "Not anymore, **'Dad'**, Alucard's presence has left me for good… and to prove it, look for yourself." Aran pulled down the neck of his shirt to reveal his neck. "I'm not wearing that accursed collar, and I'm still in control of myself."

"Dear boy… control? You think you have any sort of grasp on your own mind?"

_Hmph…_ "Enough to warn you that if you take even one step towards me, I'll have to show you just how strong I've become without the collar!"

Just to push Aran for the fun of it, Yazoo took exactly one step towards his son. Aran lashed out at him with his bare hand, formed into a claw strike with every intention of going for the heart. Yazoo dodged to the side without a trace of an effort, putting a gun to the back of Aran's head and another to his heart. "You have no idea how pathetic you really are…" he said, pressing the gun barrel near Aran's heart closer, "and yet you have no idea what you're capable of."

"What are you talking about…?" Aran said through clenched teeth, consumed with rage, "you son of a b-!"

**Click.**

Yazoo interrupted him by jabbing the gun barrel roughly into his neck. "I believe that insult applies more directly to you, son."

At this Aran snapped. Both guns immediately crumbled themselves into small metallic lumps and were flung across the hall with amazing speed, landing with a quiet "clack" far away. Aran turned around quickly and elbowed Yazoo in the stomach with a force that almost caused Yazoo's spine to shatter, sending him rocketing into the wall behind them. With a loud crash and explosion of darkened rubble, Yazoo hit the wall with enough force to create a small crater.

Yazoo clawed his way out of the hole to discover that the intended reaction had taken place. Aran stood before him, his hair several shades darker and eyes now black with white pupils. The stones beneath him began to rot as a dark aura surrounding him slowly became more and more powerful. Yazoo could feel an immense pressure on his ribcage, which began to spread to the other bones of his body as though they were all being very tightly gripped by an unknown force.

"You…" Aran said slowly, speaking in three voices. One voice was that of Aran as he normally was. The second was calm, though, and seemed to radiate the wisdom of enlightenment as it spoke. The third, however, fluctuated rapidly. It seemed like the voice itself, not the host, was driven completely insane with bloodlust; lashing out randomly with a harshness unlike the other two. "You are my enemy. You killed my real father. You killed thousands of my brethren. You brought misery upon countless others. You ruined me."

Yazoo smirked as a small stream of blood began to flow from the corner of his lip. "I made you."

And then it was over in a matter of three seconds.

Aran lashed out with the same claw-hand strike to the heart, this time connecting. Aran felt his hand puncture the frail outer layer of Yazoo's skin and pass through his ribcage, clenching his hand around Yazoo's still-beating heart. This took one second.

With a quick pull-back, Aran had taken the vital organ from his father's body, leaving him to clutch at the empty gap in excruciating pain. Blood poured freely from the once-occupied space and left Yazoo's body in a matter of seconds. However, his death was near instantaneous. This took one second.

Aran suddenly blacked out and fell over, slumped over the form of his deceased father. His features lightened once more and his breathing stopped, if only for a second.

After a minute had passed, Yazoo opened his eyes and stood up, brushing himself off. "Thank god I don't need that thing… good work, Original."

The Original stepped out from the darkness and holstered the stun rifle he had just used on Aran, though it had enough power to take down a bull elephant. "This better have been worth it."

Yazoo smiled as he looked down at his son's limp form. "Oh trust me, it is… now that we've finally brought out the remaining darkness into his common form, he should have power far beyond even our comprehension. Come very soon, Aran will be useful to us… you just wait and see."

--

**And that's about it for now, folks. I'm back from camp and such, and that was fun as hell to write right there… so I think I'm more or less on a roll. Hopefully I'll be seeing you guys again soon.**

**Cheers, Jiece.**


	45. Endless Waltz, part 9

**Alright, let me get something straight here, people… cough finalpokemariofan and monkey36 cough… Unless I specifically tell you guys, every chapter is full-on intended from the start to be a genuine chapter with a purpose and effect on the rest of the story. In other words, none of this is filler… seriously you guys. I take pride in my work, and thusly I can safely say I've been known to get steamed a bit when someone basically says "I think you just couldn't think of anything to write."**

**Now that that's out of the way, I don't mean to "attack" any of you people with that comment, but it just had to be said for the common good… and my own personal good. Enjoy the following, please:**

**--**

Endless Waltz, part 9: If the plot gets any thicker, it won't fit on your computer screen

--

"Well, this must be a position you aren't used to being in, Sephiroth… how does it feel to be on the losing side once more?"

Sephiroth took a step back shakily, clenching his teeth. His hands quivering, he reached for his katana on instinct, his mind only realizing it was still gone after two or three fruitless attempts to draw it. "W-what…" he managed to stutter, still shocked from Alucard's sudden change in appearance. "What are you!?"

Alucard smirked and took a step forward, which was met with a step backwards by Sephiroth. "I am a demon, Sephiroth, just like you. But unlike you, I actually know what true power **is**. I bring about the end of worlds, I herald the beginning of the end, I awaken the miasma itself… and in some point of my life, I made the mistake of creating you."

"C-c-creating… me? You dare compare yourself to a god, Alucard!?"

"Fool! I compare myself to nothing!" Alucard cried out as his out-jutting ribs clacked against each other in rage. "Allow me to tell you a story, Sephiroth… make yourself comfortable." Alucard raised an open palm with a demented smile as Sephiroth suddenly cried out in agony and fell to the floor.

Sephiroth looked up at his adversary, almost blinded by the searing pain in his left knee. Alucard's open palm was now clenched around a small, bloody object that he could not make out. He threw it to the ground, only an inch out of Sephiroth's reach, to reveal Sephiroth's left kneecap, battered slightly from its sudden displacement. "I swear to you…" Sephiroth spat, "you will pay!"

Again the sound of a sickening splitting filled the room as Sephiroth suddenly found himself unable to move either leg. A second fraction of his skeletal structure was dropped on the ground as Alucard slowly began to pace around Sephiroth's mangled body. "I trust that you won't interrupt me when I begin the story, then… I'll continue."

--

Alucard's Tale

--

It started out simply enough… as most stories do; with a hero. In the grand Kingdom of Corneria, no less, was where this hero resided. The Kingdom of legend… that which set the foundation for all civilization we see today. Being a prime example of a utopian society, of course, Corneria had its own knighthood: a group of honorable soldiers who would march straight into the gates of hell to protect their precious lands.

One knight, though, was far more skilled in every way than the rest of his fellow Knights. He could outmatch any man in combat, he could outwit any scholar in contests of the mind, and he was loved by all the citizens of Corneria for this… he was the one they counted on to protect them. This Knight's name… was Garland.

However, there is darkness in every balanced being… as you know, Sephiroth, everyone is exactly half good and half bad, for that is the way of the common man. Garland was one of the first beings to give in to this darkness inside him. He became, how should I say, addicted to the fame. His passion for his cause was the undoing of him, as he became more and more adamant towards the vanquishing of Corneria's foes. In fact, he soon began to go off on his own, sometimes for months at a time, to slay the enemy on their own turf. Soon Corneria no longer needed a knighthood or a standing army, as Garland continued to single-handedly conquer the continent. Unfortunately for him, though, nothing lasts forever.

It was found out that Garland had given false information regarding several surrounding civilizations concerning where their loyalties lay with Corneria as an excuse to invade and destroy them. The Kingdom turned on Garland and, as an act of revenge; Garland kidnapped the King's daughter, Sara. Garland was far too deep in this little mess he'd made, and there was no turning back, it seemed. This period of time when the Princess was missing, when the Kingdom morale hit rock bottom, when society itself was threatened by this maniac… came to be known as the first miasma.

It took the courage of four brave warriors to bring Garland back to his senses. The four original warriors of light were dispatched to retrieve the princess from Garland, and they succeeded. Garland shortly realized what he had become after his defeat, and immediately set out to redeem himself. Casting aside his knighthood, he decided to give away every wealth in his possession and join an order of monks under a new name.

It is here that his greatest and most terrifying nightmare came to life. He learned of a ritual during his time at the abbey that could forcibly remove all evil and sin from one's body… similar to an exorcism, only used instead for any possible sin someone desperate enough to use the ritual had to purge. It was not long before Garland, in secret, had gathered the incantations, resources, and other requirements necessary for the ritual and was ready to cleanse himself. Unfortunately, there was no forgiving what he had done…

This short period in history where Garland attempted to purge his wickedness is currently known as "the splitting", and repeating this act was banned under any possible circumstance shortly after it had been finished. Through the hours and hours of indescribable agony that Garland endured, one sin was purged every minute. Every single innocent person killed by his blade was avenged… 60 to an hour and 1,440 to a day.

Once the process had at last been completed, Garland was a broken man. He lay on the floor of the abbey's basement for days, unable to move from the shock of having half of his soul removed. But Garland had the will to live unlike any other man, and he was able to survive.

It was not long, though, before he realized he was not alone. Immediately after the ritual had finished, a darkened figure appeared in the room, lounging upon the empty bench on the wall. Several times Garland was able to wheeze questions like "who are you" and "what do you want", but the figure continued to sit, immobile, and stare. For seven hours they sat motionless until the figure stood up and revealed itself. Garland, now a completely reborn and pure man, was almost brought to death solely from the evil aura that surrounded the stranger. He realized that this speechless, cold figure must be the concentration of the wickedness he had released… the child of ten thousand deaths… the product of countless wrongdoings… the embodiment of sin.

The being fed itself on pain and suffering, and therefore was able to recover much more quickly than Garland could hope to. This was when the ultimate atrocity occurred. The figured retrieved the tome from which Garland had read and re-applied the incantation, replenished the resources, and repeated the ritual; once again on Garland. With no sins to purge, Garland felt no pain… he merely was split into two halves, both beings of pure good. The darkness again cast the ritual, and again, and again… until he could no longer find the materials to continue. Seven weakened and shriveled Garlands lay before him, each equally affected, as they were still technically the same being.

Now with a perfect advantage, the darkness killed Garland, piece by piece, so he could continue on without opposition. The third terrible occurrence had come to pass, this time in the form of an actual living being. This concentration of pure bloodlust and agony came to be known as… Alucard.

--

"And so you see Sephiroth… I have been around far longer than you have… I outdo you in every possible aspect of your being. I'm stronger, wiser, more experienced… and I have countless horrors under my control which I have gained over the past millennia."

"Ha! You are nothing, Alucard. All I've gained from this lecture is that you're far too old to be conquering **anything** nowadays!"

Sephiroth suddenly sprang upright and swept Alucard off of his feet with a low-kick and materialized a second katana into his hand. He stood over Alucard with the point at his throat and glared. "You compare yourself to a god with nothing to back you up, and claim you have won this fight with no bearings… you are a lost cause, Alucard, and Rukafelth shall guide my blade as it plunges into your foul heart so that I may finally end you!"

Sephiroth raised his katana as high as it would reach and turned it blade-down, grabbing it with both hands by the hilt, ready to rid the world of Alucard once and for all. "Goodbye, Alucard!" Sephiroth yowled with a wicked hoarseness in his voice. He thrust his blade downward with all his might, only to have it shatter as it came down, starting at the point, as soon as it touched Alucard. Alucard vanished from sight and re-appeared horizontally in front of Sephiroth.

He clamped Sephiroth's neck between his ankles before hitting the ground and front flipped Sephiroth's face into the hard stone floor, while he himself landed with a distinct grace where Sephiroth was previously standing. "It seems that Rukafelth did not guide your blade, hm? It looks quite the opposite."

"…how…?"

"I still don't understand how you're missing this, Sephiroth… guess who causes every miasma? Me. Guess who is able to subdue me every calm? Garland. My plan unfortunately did not work out the way it was supposed to when I killed Garland… when I was able to get back on my feet, so to speak, I started the chaos all over again with the intention of creating a new world entirely under my rule… this period of my domination is of course known as…"

"The second miasma…" Sephiroth said weakly.

"Precisely. However, Garland, who was returned to his original whole state, attempted to come down to Graphia in order to stop me. Instead, since I had split him into seven pieces before he died, he's forever bound to exist in seven separate entities while in Graphia. Too weak to fight me on their own, the seven entered the bodies of seven young warriors; one from each continent. After 10 or so years they learned of their gifts and gained the assistance of several other warriors along their journey to find and destroy me. Eventually seven groups had banded together as heroes… sickening. They were each able to locate and kill every demon who played a major role in my plans… and I was forced to retreat, just as Garland then returned to the heavens.

"Many years later I attempted a new strategy… but was again beaten by another seven. However, they did not know our names… they were still lost in confusion… they barely knew who they were fighting and who had given them the ability to fight. Eventually we were given the names Astaroth and Rukafelth."

"What!? You mean…!"

"Yes, Sephiroth… now you understand why your blade was shattered?" Alucard laughed wickedly, "'Rukafelth shall guide my blade', hm? Ha! You don't realize just how hilarious that is, Sephiroth… you actually told me that I'll let you kill me… just hilarious."

"But… you… all this time, I have been…"

"My servant? Yes. During the seventh miasma you were created by none other than me… and you were so promising as well. That is, until the human hero, Cloud, had to ruin it. And now you dare to challenge a god? How utterly pathetic, Sephiroth… you have fallen as far as to challenge your creator.

"…and now, I'm afraid, you must be punished. Your guards have been slaughtered, your minions devoured by my ghouls… your hopes crushed, your mind lost, and your life… is mine."

--

**And now you know what Alucard really is.**


	46. Endless Waltz, part 10

**Just so you all know, in order to make up for my lack of updates (first week of school laziness), this chapter is going to be muy-grande.**

--

Endless Waltz, part 10: The Final Preliminary

Gana walked into the center of the arena once more and raised a hand for relative silence. To his right were Ryan, Zach, and David from the Braska dorm; and to his left were none other than Rinn, Trent, and Aran from the Leonhart dorm. "This match will decide the fate of the Leonhart dorm!" he shouted above the unyielding roar of the crowd, "Should its third squad be victorious, they will be admitted into the match… should they fail, these three gentlemen from the Braska dorm will not only have won, but will have taken their team to victory." He paused for a bit and cleared his throat. "Without further adieu, the third preliminary round: The Triad Relay!

"You now have one minute to consult your strategy with your team."

Rinn, Trent, and Aran immediately went at it, not wanting to waste a second. "First off," Rinn started, "do either of you have any clue what we're supposed to be doing here?"

Trent stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Well, I assume it's some sort of relay race… judging by the word 'triad' in the title of the round, I'd say it probably involves three of something as well, but that's just my theory."

…

…

"**Wow**, Trent. What would we do without you? How about you, Aran, got anything?"

Aran looked groggily up at the black mage and shook his head. "I still can't even remember how I got back to you guys so quickly after I lost track of Eriq… though for some reason I get the feeling guns were involved."

"Guns?"

"Three, at least… but yeah, guns."

"Well that's just fantastic, we're armed with absolutely no knowledge of the challenge, a black mage with an intense headache from questioning his own thoughts, a white mage who can't remember anything in the past hour except an apparent multitude of guns, and… Trent."

"Yo."

"So when does this thing even…" Both Aran and Trent suddenly vanished from sight, leaving Rinn standing beside his opponent, Zach, in the middle of the arena, "…start…"

--

**First relay: fight for the rights to the stick!**

--

"The rights to the… what?" Rinn asked with barely enough time afterwards to dive to the left, avoiding a thick shard of ice flung in his direction. Rinn recovered and rose quickly, deftly side-stepping yet another shard and canceling out the third with a hefty blast of flame. "You couldn't even give me a few **seconds** to get ready?!"

"What? He said start, so we start!" Zach replied as he ducked under the previously mentioned fireball. "I guess you're more fire-oriented, right?"

"And I'm going to assume you're more comfortable with ice magic?"

"Pretty much."

Rinn adjusted the brim of his hat and smirked. "This is gonna be either really fun or really annoying." He charged at Zach with another sphere of flame clutched in his hand, ready to hit him at point-blank range. Zach met his charge with one of his own, ready to launch another razor-sharp stalagmite of ice.

Just as they were about to meet, Rinn dodged to the right suddenly, taken aback by what now appeared to be a sword made completely of ice in Zach's clutches. The fire built up in his palm faded as he regained himself. "You have a **sword** now!? How is that fair?"

"I'm sure you could do it just as easily…" Zach said with a challenging smile as he again made for a sprint towards Rinn. Again the two came at each other, though this time Rinn was prepared. He deflected Zach's slash with the side of his staff and quickly turned back to face him as soon as they had passed each other. Just as Rinn had predicted, Zach had attempted to hit him again from the back. With two notches now in his staff, Rinn let down his guard and laughed quietly.

"It's a bit harder to do with fire… I guess this means this fight is going to be annoying, then?"

"Annoying for you… for me it's still fun."

Rinn attempted to shift his stance to cast a more powerful fire spell, but found that he couldn't. He looked quickly at his feet to find they were encased in a thick, creeping ice and attached to the ground. "How the hell did you do that?"

"Kinda simple, actually… as you deflected my second sword attack, you chipped some of the ice off of it. I guided it to land where you're standing now, and it's currently freezing the water in the air around you… most concentrated in the air closest to your body. It's gonna keep doing that until you freeze and I get the relay baton."

Rinn opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again upon realizing Zach's plan was actually quite good. "Damn," he said, "good work there… even though I'm the victim, I've got to applaud you on that one; didn't see it coming."

"Thanks," Zach said as he also dropped his guard when he saw Rinn had more or less given up. "There are two options you have… wait to freeze or forfeit. I could take either, so… make your choice."

Again Rinn was forced to laugh a bit. "You can't really think this is going to be over that quick, can you?" Rinn said as the ice began to crawl up to his knees. Zach ran a hand across the flat of the blade, causing it to increase in size almost twofold.

"I was hoping, but I guess there really wasn't a point, huh?"

"Nope."

"Sucks for you!" Zach put a hand to the ground and froze over a good four square feet just below him. He backed up a bit and dove into the ice, letting it shatter upon his phase-through. Rinn cocked an eyebrow as he remained frozen, with no sight of Zach.

"Well, that's also quite impressive…" Rinn thought aloud, wondering inwardly if Zach could hear him, wherever he was. "You can even phase through the stuff? It's basically like the equivalent of swimming, for you, right?"

A paper-thin sheet of ice emerged from the ground, at least eight feet tall, faster than Rinn could register in his mind. Zach shot out from it and into another one just a few feet in front of it with just enough time in between the transition to shout "pretty much!" Both ice sheets submerged themselves back into the ground as fast as they'd come up, and reappeared on the other side of Rinn, about two yards away from him. Zach again bolted between the two, a little faster this time.

This continued for a solid minute or so until eventually the area surrounding Rinn became a giant, white-and-blue blur due to Zach's speed between transitions. "Oh great…" Rinn said to himself, "here comes that headache again."

Suddenly only a single ice portal appeared just a foot or so in front of Rinn. As soon as he had realized it had appeared, he felt the sting of the cut Zach's blade had caused on his side. Zach stood not too far behind Rinn now; he let the blade-point fall to take the stress of the weight off of his arm and turned. "You forced me to do that."

"I assume, since I'm not bleeding, that not only has the wound frozen over… but the water in my body is going to begin to freeze?"

"That's about right. With your body heat, it should slow down the process, but it will be much quicker than the other way in any case. You can still forfeit, you know… just sayin'."

Rinn turned as far as he could, with the outer ice now up to his waist, to try and face Zach. "You see, man, we have a problem here too… I'm still gonna win."

Zach laughed heartily at this. "Could you tell me **how** you're gonna do that?"

"Well, if you'd watched my last match… you would know two things that explain it. First thing's first… you cut me with your ice sword. Forming a solid and stable weapon from an element is difficult, certainly not something I would have thought of mastering before this match. But thanks to you, I won't have to."

"You won't… what?"

"My point is, Zach…"

Rinn suddenly leapt forward in a flurry of shattered ice and water, skidding to a halt upon landing and turning with catlike agility. He lashed out a Zach with his fist of fire once more, expecting Zach to once again block it with his ice blade.

He did.

To Zach and the crowd's surprise, Rinn knocked the sword from Zach's hand with one of his own- a scimitar of blazing flame. Again skidding to a halt from the momentum, Rinn hastily grabbed Zach's sword and prepared to lash out at him with both fire and ice. "I have blue magic!"

Rinn first threw his scimitar at Zach, while he was still both in shock and recovering. On instinct, Zach dove out of the way, just as Rinn wanted him to. "Water!" he shouted, hurling a miniature tidal wave in Zach's direction. Just as Zach was able to stand, he was again swept off of his feet, this time by the rush of water. As he stumbled and struggled to stand against the spell, which spanned from the ground nearly to his chest, Rinn tossed his own sword at him.

Noticing it as his own just as the tidal surge had subsided, Zach jumped forward to meet it willingly, ready to strike back at Rinn. In the uproar, though, he'd forgotten that he was soaked from head to toe. In the same second that he'd taken hold of the sword's hilt, Zach was completely incased in his own "creeping ice" spell; almost a solid block of ice encased him, immediately declaring him "unfit to continue."

Rinn walked up to his frozen combatant and smiled. "Good match, though, Zach…" he began just as a relay baton appeared suddenly in his hand. "And if you were wondering what the other thing was, it's that I'm way smarter than any of the other freshman here, so don't try to be intelligent and cunning when you're 'bringing me down', okay? Seeya 'round."

Rinn hurried off towards the goal post that had just appeared not too far away, hoping Trent would be as successful when he faced off against his opponent.

--

**As I said before, first (few) week(s) of school is a drag; my bad. I hope you enjoyed this though. Tune in next time for Trent vs. Ryan!**


	47. Endless Waltz, part 11

**So apparently my English teacher thinks I'm good at writing… really good. He asked whether or not I practiced my writing outside of school and I tried not to laugh. But anyway, here's part 11.**

Endless Waltz, part 11: Running sucks.

--

"So… a dragoon, eh? How's that workin' out for ya?"

"Oh, you know, not bad… I can pretty much jump high and stab things. It's basically all I do."

"No flying, eh?"

"Not until level 30."

"Sucks for you." Trent finished, sheathing his leaf-blade sword into its scabbard. "That thing is way too heavy to carry around for so long."

"I told you that you should've sheathed it sooner," Ryan commented, "so you could rest your arms… but you had to go and be stubborn about it."

"Well, two things there… one, you're the enemy, you could've been trying to sabotage me."

"Fair enough."

"Two, I might need it as soon as we start."

Ryan cocked an eyebrow at Trent. "It's basically a foot race we have to do, right? What possible use could you have for a sword?"

"Well what possible use could you have for a spear?"

…

"Touché."

**BONG!**

Trent immediately sprinted forward at the sound of the starting gong, down the narrow, torch-lit hallway that extended far past his vision, into the distance. Ryan, who had attempted to move, had instead tripped and front-flipped over himself somehow. The narrator's voice sounded in his head: "Trent gets a ten second head start because Rinn defeated Zack in their duel."

"Crap…"

_This is simultaneously the easiest and most boring victory I will ever attain… I don't know whether to be happy or depressed._ Trent thought to himself as he continued down the long hallway as fast as his legs would take him. Unfortunately, though, even Trent wasn't spear-proof. Well, actually, he was, but a thrown spear is still enough to knock anyone off of their feet.

A Ryan-shaped blur sped past Trent's downed figure, who could only reply in a rough groan of pain. He hurriedly picked himself up in both anger and haste, not bothering to check the scene for safety. As soon as Trent was once more on his feet, the same spear came flying back from in front of him, knocking him on his back. This time Trent rose with a sheepish grin, embarrassed at being hit by the same trick twice. He brushed himself off and shouted down the hall. "How many times do you plan on using the same trick?"

From the distance, Trent faintly heard someone call back: "Once more!"

Trent was felled immediately after he heard this, tripped from behind by the spear, being pulled back to Ryan by chain attached to the end. With a renewed rage, Trent no longer had tolerance for this. "This time you're going down!" Trent charged forward as fast as he could possibly bring himself to, putting to use his ability to feel no pain. _Dragoons are freakin' fast…_ he thought to himself as he remembered the blur of Ryan running past him. _I wanted to save this for the last round, but oh well…_

--

Ryan sprinted forward with staggering speed, a low leap in every stride. _Didn't think it'd be this easy… should've brought something to do in the meantime._ _Hell, I'm not even trying!_ Ryan thought these things in a bored jubilation, exciting to be winning, but disappointed in the lack of thrill. He suddenly heard a triumphant shout far behind him, obviously coming from Trent. Ryan smiled to himself as he saw a bright light far ahead of him. _Even if you're back up, there's no way to catch up with me before…_

Trent suddenly appeared beside Ryan, hair blown back from the speed it must've taken to cover such a distance in a matter of seconds. He smiled cheerily at Ryan's dumbfounded expression, knowing full well what he was doing was both fair and broke no rules. "Miss me?"

"How did you…?"

Trent put his free hand in Ryan's face, waving a finger. "Like I'd tell you? Besides, I'm too busy winning!" Trent suddenly jumped up and whirlwind-kicked Ryan across the face, flipping him backwards and leaving him to fall on his back. Trent, unfortunately, met the same fate. Both of them skidded across the hall at high velocity, sparks flying from the weapon collisions with the stone walls and floor. Rolling, flipping, and at some points hovering across the ground, both combatants took heavy damage from Trent's reckless maneuver. Trent managed to finally skid to a halt with the ingenious plan of using his face as a brake, while Ryan was lucky enough to halt while on his armor-plated knees. Once recovered, he immediately leapt up and continued the race, jumping backwards through the exit to see Trent one last time before he won. "You're overconfident!" he shouted.

"And you're a dick!" Trent shouted back, leaping forward with bestial rage, tackling Ryan in mid-jump and bringing them, once again, crashing to the ground. Though this ground was a bit different than the stone flooring, as the hallway appeared to empty out into some odd and somewhat frictionless room. Trent and Ryan were locked in hand-to-hand combat, both flailing about in a mass of metal and flesh in which it was impossible to tell one from the other. Ryan finally managed to double-kick Trent off of him with a dead-eye shot to the stomach. Trent flopped down onto his back in exhaustion, as did Ryan, and took in the scenery.

They were still in the coliseum, that was for sure, but where in the coliseum? He saw the stands, the sand, and the sky… the crowd was cheering and the sun glared though transparent, oily-looking, rounded ceiling. _Where have I seen this before?_ Trent wondered. He stood up and fell immediately, discovering that the texture of the ground itself was also quite oily; impossible to stand up on without perfect balance and weight placement. He looked down at the ground to find the sand of the arena floor just a foot below him. _I'm floating? Wait a second…_ Trent thought as he remembered where he'd seen this kind of terrain before: the blitzball games he'd used to go to back when he lived in the capitol.

Indeed Trent's thoughts were correct, as both he and Ryan had been rushing through a hallway that emptied out into a giant blitzball-course shell, without the water filling up a majority of the course. When seen from afar, it seemed as though the two contestants in the match were trapped in a giant, semi-visible sphere; noticeable only by the sun's glare from the course's surface and the thin, oily layer of the course's shell. Trent looked up to see the exit: on the opposite side of the course from the hallway exit, and about 200 feet higher from it, as well.

"Blitzball, eh?" Ryan said, apparently having the same train of thought as Trent. "How do we get out of this one?"

--

"So what now, you plan to kill me and be done with it? Don't think this murder will go unnoticed!" Sephiroth spat at Alucard, helplessly pinned to the wall by two long, sharpened spears of bone that impaled his shoulders. "If you are truly my god then hear my cry and end my life!"

Alucard paced back and forth slowly in front of Sephiroth, the feint smile not leaving his face. "I'm resurrected from the body of a child, I travel across half of the Desert of Ar'Hakkam, fight my way through your army, and go through the trouble of subduing you… and you believe I did all of this just to kill you? No… with a mere **thought** I could have killed you, Sephiroth. For what I need from you, I needed to meet you face-to-face."

Alucard stopped his pacing and took a few steps toward Sephiroth, stopping a yard or so in front of him. Thrusting his right hand out in front of himself, Alucard cocked an eyebrow towards Sephiroth. "Are you ready to meet your fate?"

"I ask you again, what do you plan to do?!"

Alucard laughed as he turned his limp hand, palm now facing upwards. A single black line etched itself into his skin, first visible from the tiny bit of exposed flesh between his sleeve and gauntlet. As the edge of the engraving crept down his wrist and into his hand, it cut through the solid adamant gauntlet, leaving it to fall to the ground in two identical halves. As it reached Alucard's palm, it split into five separate ends, which continued to move along until they'd reach the tips of his fingers, and finally stopped. Alucard looked up to Sephiroth once more, relishing the expression of both intimidation and worry that was so rarely seen upon a man so powerful. "In short, Sephiroth… I'm going to make sue that you don't disobey me again. I'm not going to kill you, oh no… quite the opposite. It's time that I bring you new life!"

--

**Sorry for the late update, folks, I hope that's going to be the last one for a while.**


	48. Endless Waltz, part 12

Endless Waltz, part 12: The final match begins!

"Alright then, let's assess the situation for a moment. I won my match, Trent knocked out his opponent and walked to the goal, and Aran fainted in the first ten minutes of his match from exhaustion… does that mean we're still in?"

The remaining members of the Leonhart team stared back at Rinn either in disbelief, doubt, or pure will to stay awake through a team meeting. Aran very slowly raised a hand with a yawn and spoke, "yeh…" Apparently too tired to either say "yes" or "yeah", the mixture of the two responses suited Aran quite nicely at the time. Rinn inwardly slapped himself in the face, _this isn't really happening… not now of all times._

Within a period of five minutes, Aran had fallen into what can only be described as a mild coma and was taken away to the infirmary. Shortly after, Jiece left the waiting area in order to make his way back to the dorm to sleep. And a mere minute after **that**, Gana came into the room to bring grim news to the team. He folded his arms across his chest and shook his head solemnly. "I'm sorry Rinn, but I'm afraid the Braska dorm will be winning the match today."

"What? Why? Can Aran not make it back?"

He again shook his head silently. "The head of the white magic department says he should rest indefinitely for a period of no less than 24 hours… I'm sorry."

"But… but… we finally won a match! They can't really take that away from us!"

"Rinn, I truly sympathize with you, but the rules state that for a three-against-three match, there must be three combatants on each team. They don't call them three-versus-three rounds for nothing."

At this last line, Trent (of all people) hatched an idea. "Wait a second! Do the rules specifically state that final match played as a result of a 2-to-1 win/loss preliminary round setup **has** to be a three-versus-three match? Could we not consciously change it to a two-versus-three?"

…

…

"I… suppose so, Trent, but why on earth would you accept the terms to such a one-sided setup?"

Trent stood up proudly, a fire burning in his eyes. "For over seventeen generations now, not a single member of the Cedric family has readily accepted defeat from a mere inconvenience, and I'm not about to be the first! I don't know if Rinn shares the same belief, but even if he did not, I would not hesitate for a split second to accept the terms to even a three on one match! Call me brave or call me an idiot, but I will not back down!"

Unexpectedly empowered by Trent's rather emboldening speech, Rinn bolted upright next to his crimson-haired companion. "If it's all the same to you and the rulebook, Gana, I'll also accept the terms to a three-versus-two match."

Gana smiled brightly with renewed vigor and clamped a hand down on each of their shoulders. "That's the kind of spirit I like to see! I'll go inform the judging committee of the new circumstances." And with that, Gana hurried from the room, carefully closing the door behind him. Once out of eyesight, he immediately took on a rather sour expression. _This is not as I planned… things are getting far more complicated than they need be…_

--

30 minutes later…

--

Gana stood atop a massive sandstone structure that took up most of the flooring of the coliseum. It was completely cube-like in appearance and stood almost eight stories tall, the outline of a large, confusing maze etched into any of its six faces. With a tremendously histrionic upwards movement of his arms, the cube was slowly lifted into the air until it was about half its own height from the ground, floating in mid-air. Gana looked slowly to the left, then to the right. He folded his arms once more across his chest and explained the cube's purpose to the crowd in his booming announcer's voice. "Within opposite corners of this three-dimensional maze are the two teams competing in the final event: one on side we have Crystal, Kutota, and Sergin of the Braska dorm… and in the other: Rinn and Trent of the Leonhart dorm!"

There was a mixture of both cheering and inquisitive whispering amongst the crowd, due to the lacking number of participants on the Leonhart's side.

"Each member of each team has been given a small ring infused with the black magic spell known as 'gravity', keeping them constantly and firmly set on the ground." Gana took a few moments to chuckle to himself. "Or so they would think… the maze will from time to time rearrange its positioning by way of rotating around its spherical central axis, though the combatants will feel no difference at all.

"In addition, several monsters have been let loose in the maze and are currently waiting for anything that may cross their path. The object of the round is to make it to the center of the spherical axis, which is hollow, and retrieve the crystal ball within, upon which the retriever will bring it back to the starting point and exit the course victorious. Let it be known that no matter what happens, with the exception being that every combatant is incapacitated, the rules will not change. The match will begin in five, four…"

The crowd joined in on the countdown as it neared its end and Gana disappeared from view. "Three! Two! One!"

--

The stone door in front of Rinn and Trent suddenly shifted upwards into the ceiling, allowing them passage into the arena. As soon as they'd taken a mere step inside, they could see the Braska team directly on the other side of the hallway. Immediately taking action, Rinn launched three consecutive fireballs their way: one low, one high, and the final between.

Traveling at a speed of at least eighty miles an hour, the flames arrived quickly, leaving the Braska team only a few seconds to react. Sergin was the first to react. He leapt out directly towards them and stomped harshly upon the first fireball, the lowest-placed one. He smothered it instantly and flattened out his back to be perfectly horizontal, having Kutota used it as an organic springboard to launch himself forward as he beat down the highest-placed fireball. He grabbed onto an out-jutting pipe from the ceiling and hung onto it for a moment, his spare arm reaching out to Crystal, who has also now jumped off of Sergin's back, to toss her towards the mid-level spell. Crystal caught it after being helped by Kutota, landed, switched it to her throwing hand, and fiercely pitched it back to Rinn and Trent.

In a much less impressive retaliation, Trent stepped forward triumphantly and slapped the incoming attack "across the face", sending it flying into the wall. Repositioning himself, Trent prepared to lunge across the hall and take his attackers head on. However, a wall suddenly came down directly in between the two groups just as Trent had gotten half way across the hallway, having to stop abruptly in order to avoid being prematurely taken out of the match.

The ground began to tremble violently and both Rinn and Trent were knocked off of their respective balances, poorly attempting to regain them before again losing them and falling to the ground a second time. When the quake was through, the wall was lifted once more and, to the shock of the two, there was nothing but an empty hallway on the other side. There was a moment of silence before Trent quickly brought himself up with a wide grin. "That's right, run away! There's no one in all of Graphia that can take down a Cedric! Not a soul in the whole damn place!"

As if this rather ignorant shout was a queue, a door to the side of the hallway formerly blocked by the stone wall slowly opened, revealing an inky blackness pierced by a single light that shone to the opposite wall quite clearly. All the sound seemed to disappear from the world as Trent stood, silenced and still, staring at the new development. Rinn, a foot or so behind him, had just noticed and joined Trent in his ogling. A small footstep was heard, and a mild chill came over them both. About 30 seconds later, another footstep sounded out, and another after a second half-minute. It wasn't long before Rinn and Trent witnessed the arrival of a scourge beyond comprehension that plagued Graphia to no end. Trent recognized the two feet of terror immediately and slowly backed up, unable to speak except for a single word barely able to be heard: "T-ton… t-t-tonberry…"

Rinn, finding the incredibly short lizard-person rather humorous, turned to Trent with relief. "What are you so worried about? The thing's tiny."

"No, Rinn, you don't get it… that thing is pure hell in a brown robe!"

Rinn cocked an eyebrow and looked back at the miniature lizardman, who by this time had managed to take another step, and looked again to Trent. "Well it has a dagger, yeah, but it can't even move a mile an hour. What happened to 'nothing in Graphia can take down a Cedric'?"

"Rinn," Trent was able to whisper in a voice quivering with fear, "it's true nothing in Graphia can take down a Cedric…" Trent continued to back up in tune with the Tonberry's speed, his face growing a shade paler with every step. "But that's an exception!" he shouted behind him as he sprinted back down the hallway and took a turn that had appeared after the quake.

Rinn sighed at his friend's inability to tell when a joke isn't funny anymore and turned around to get rid of this "tonberry" that he was supposedly afraid of. However, upon turning, Rinn found that it had disappeared from its previous position. A very slight, almost undetectable panic shot through him for an instant before he remembered the sheer lack of threat the tonberry had generated with its appearance. Rinn relaxed a bit and heard the shuffling of cloth at his feet, at first thinking it was the mere swish of his robes he so frequently heard as he looked down. He found, however, a small, green lizard-man in a brown robe at his feet, carrying a lantern in one hand and a dagger in the other.

Rinn was frozen for a split second, baffled by the incomprehensible speed of the tonberry. This split second, however, was all that was needed for the tonberry to make a quick stab at Rinn with the dagger. The point of the seemingly dull blade barely touched Rinn, **maybe** piercing the skin about a millimeter in. To Rinn's surprise, though, all the feeling in his leg had suddenly left him as soon as he was touched by the dagger and he fell to the ground roughly, his lifeless leg settling in what looked (but didn't feel) like a broken position. The tonberry merely looked up at Rinn now that they were on an equal eye level and bowed slowly. He sheathed the dagger, lifted his lamp a bit higher, and walked down the hallway away from Rinn at his previous speed, finally vanishing after five silent minutes.

Jaw having already dropped further than thought possible, Rinn shook himself out of it. He attempted to drag himself after Trent over a few feet before resigning himself to the risk of giving away his position. "Hey, Trent! It's gone now, so get over here and gimme a hand!"

Absolute silence returned his call and Rinn sighed quietly to himself. "This is going well…"

--

**At this point I'm going to give up on saying "Oh crap, sorry about the late update! I'll update more often in the future" because I know it probably won't happen. Christmas, exams, getting back to school and other things really slowed me down, yeah, but this lateness is just absurd… I haven't been this bad since last summer where I didn't write for 2 months.**

**In any case, I've devised a way in which I can maximize the amount of free time I have, and thusly the time I have to write, among other things, so I think I can safely say I'll be better about updates, if only by a bit.**


	49. Endless Waltz, part 13

Endless Waltz, part 13: Out of the frying pan and into… the bigger frying pan.

--

Trent, having been called out of hiding by a certain angry mage, helped Rinn up onto his feet with an unsure grin; inwardly laughing at Rinn's misfortune but incredibly afraid of what Rinn's retaliation would consist of, should he outwardly show his amusement. With Rinn's arm over Trent's shoulder, he was able to bring the mage to an awkward balance on his crippled leg. "I bet you wish Aran was here, eh?"

Rinn practically threw himself off of Trent to lean against the wall instead, casting him an agitated glare. "You think? It's bad enough that we're outnumbered, and now I can't even walk two feet without stopping to regain my balance… hell, it might as well just be one against those three if I have to have someone holding me up just to cast a spell!"

Trent felt obligated to point out the silver lining of their situation, as is Trent's way. "Rinn, at least we have some time to plan out our next move. If anything, we should use this downtime that's been forced onto us and think of a way to work around the situation we're in now."

Rinn stared at Trent in surprise and confusion for a few moments in silence. "Trent," he said, "you're really not as dim as you lead most people to believe, are you?"

Trent's slight grin grew into a genuine smile and he chuckled a bit. Sheathing his sword, Trent sat down onto the hard stone floor and invited Rinn to join him with a nonchalant motion of his hand. "I guess you caught me, huh? When you think about it, I'm surprised no one else thought it was odd that I came off that way, considering my background, especially."

Rinn raised an eyebrow.

"You know, the whole 'from a family of royal guardsmen' and everything like that. You think they let a bunch of morons run that operation? I feel it makes me more approachable if I seem a bit more, to be frank, stupid than that."

Rinn opened his mouth to respond but was hushed by another dismissive hand motion from Trent. "You don't have to deny it, you all thought I was on the lesser side of the IQ scale, I know. If anything, I should take that as a compliment; it means I did my job right. Besides, I think it's more fun to play the part of the cheery, oblivious guy than the noble knight."

Rinn thought of this for a moment and realized it to most likely be the truth. There were times when Trent demonstrated a much higher intelligence, but he'd figured it was merely, for lack of a better term, an accident. "Do they teach you acting too?" he asked.

At this, Trent could only laugh. "Heh, I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment. I guess I seriously had you guys… uh…" Trent's joyful expression faded into a frustrated one as he cut himself off and he remained silent for a few moments, appearing to be concentrating on something.

_Alright, now I'm just confused… is he still being honest or did he really just interrupt himself? Wait, maybe he hears something and he's trying to… no, wait, he'd probably at least __**say**__ he's trying to listen to something if that was the case… but what if the whole 'revealing monologue' was actually the act and he really __**is**__ the simple Trent we think him to be... then he might have honestly just forgot about what he's talking about and is trying to remember. Or maybe, uh… he… _Rinn hung his head and gently rubbed his right temple. "My head hurts…" he mumbled to himself, "…again…"

Suddenly Trent's eyes widened and he clumsily attempted to tackle Rinn out of the way from his sitting position, failing miserably and landing on the other side of a newly-opened trap door placed conveniently where Rinn had been sitting. Immediately he tried to get onto his feet and turn towards the hazard, only to slip and fall. Now flat on his face, which was inches away from the opening in the ground, Trent moved only his arm to pound the floor with a clenched fist. "Damnit…" he mumbled to himself, "I **really** wish I'd heard that hinge creak sooner."

--

Rinn flailed about in futility as he tumbled down the chute he'd unwittingly fallen into. The area was dark, the ground was tough, and the speed at which he was falling was quite fast; wave after wave of cold air seemed to crash against the confused mass that used to be Rinn's body while he continued to slide on his back, front, hands, knees, or whatever the ground would have him for.

Behaving purely by instinct, Rinn was able to catch hold of an out-jutting object stuck in the wall once he'd figured out which way was up and which was down amidst the chaos. Unfortunately, the sudden stop had a more harmful effect on Rinn than he'd expected. For a brief moment he was still, his mind still in shock from the rapid chain of events he'd just been subjected to. Rinn had just enough time to realize the existence of the dull, though strong, pain in his shoulder before his entire arm froze up with a resounding crack. It didn't take long for Rinn to figure out what had happened when he saw his arm length suddenly increase a bit just as the dull pain he'd felt before exploded into a sharp agony.

Rinn's fingers quickly gave out as all of his attention was suddenly focused on his dislocated shoulder. Luckily, the slope of the chute was not nearly as steep as it had been at the start, and Rinn slowly began to slip down the remainder of the course. _You've got to be kidding me…_ Rinn thought as he winced in pain, _there's no way that… we're… winning this._

--

Gana walked nonchalantly through the cheering crowd he knew so well, casually working his way towards the coliseum's exit.

"Gana!" he heard someone shout. He turned behind him to see Verikk jogging towards him. He gave Verikk a nod of acknowledgement and turned back to his stroll to the exit. Verikk caught up and matched Gana's pace just as he'd turned, "Are you alright?" he asked.

Gana raised an eyebrow at his companion in suspicion, "Of course, Verikk, why do you ask?"

"Well…" Verikk began as they both entered the short tunnel leading out of the coliseum, "I haven't seen you all day with the exception of your appearances in the arena to explain the rules, and even then you just seemed… I don't know, just a bit off. I figured I should at least ask."

Gana took his time to respond, as though considering what Verikk had just said. "Well I apologize for worrying you," he said at last, "and I thank you for your concern, but I assure you that the only thing that ails me as of late is a slight lack of sleep."

"That's a relief… we can't have our dean of students under the weather at a time like this; between the examinations coming up, end-of-term vacation, and everything in between, I'm sure you know as well as I do that discipline and organization should be a top priority."

Gana nodded with a grunt of agreement as the two reached the lush grass fields that surrounded the academy and coliseum. They both stood in silence for a moment as the wind died down, both hoping they were wrong about what they thought would happen next. Verikk decided to make the first move.

"And while we're on the subject…" Verikk slid his hands into his pockets and leaned on the arch of the passage into the coliseum, clearing his throat before continuing, "Have you seen Gana around lately?" With his last few words, he tilted his head quizzically to the side, awaiting response.

Gana sighed and shook his head slowly. "I was hoping," he said quietly, "that I would be able to get through today and spare you… apparently that's not what you had in mind."

His suspicions confirmed, Verikk reached for his katana and drew it slowly. "Look on the bright side, now I can repay you for saving my life those 16 years ago…" now drawn from its hilt, the blade-tip pointed directly at Gana in an official proclamation of war, "Astos."

Gana suddenly straightened up and froze as a hand protruded from his chest, blinding groping around as it searched for something to take hold of. It took a hold of the edge of Gana's uniform jacket and clenched it tightly, trying to pull whatever was connected to the hand into the open as well. A wrist followed the hand, then an arm, and eventually an entire being had phased through Gana. His limp body slumped to the ground, unharmed and unconscious. The figure slowly lifted his head to meet Verikk's gaze.

The empty tubes that covered Astos' body once more began to pulsate a neon orange liquid, slowly filling up any empty space until the entire system of wiring began to circulate. His eyes opened slowly, accompanied by a demonic grin. Astos straightened himself up as he brushed off the skin-tight chest piece. Large metallic shackles were clamped to his wrists, from which hung torn chainmail cuffs that extended far past the ends of his hands, almost reaching to his knees when they were at his sides. His leggings were very unlike his shirt; thick and baggy. Beneath them was a form-fitting layer of chainmail armor, both layers held up by a brightly polished metallic belt that, in intervals of equal distance from one another as average belt loops, contained what appeared to be syringes, locked down tightly.

Astos buckled his knees slightly and let his arms hang numbly at his sides, as though the weight of the shackles was too much to lift. He tilted his torso forward a bit, arms still seemingly lame, and eyed Verikk menacingly. "You seem troubled, Verikk."

"One can only imagine why." Verikk spat back.

Astos cocked his head to one side and lost his smile. "One can, and one will… am I to assume that you're caught between your zealot-like hate of everything demonic and the harsh reality that killing me would mean you'd be shattering yet another one of your precious relationships with a 'good friend'?"

"Allow me," Verikk began, keeping a stern and calm tone, "to clear something up for you. I once had a good friend by the name of Astos… he was an upright and strong-willed man. You, however, bear no resemblance to the Astos I've come to know over the passing years in both appearance and personality, and I thusly see no relation between your death and the death of a 'precious relationship'."

"Come now, Verikk, I'm sure you haven't forgotten what we'd learned from Alucard upon our meeting 16 years ago…"

"I learned only to never trust a demon, and to never betray a friend. As I see it, you're the one who has forgotten."

Astos chuckled slightly as he again straightened his posture, the substantial height of his new form providing him with a subtle yet undoubted intimidation. "What is, was… what was, will be… and what will be, is. This is one of the few basic rules of our world, as taught by my master. You once considered me to be someone of the utmost importance, someone very close to you indeed. Regardless of time or change, there will always be a part of you that still feels that way… once something has been brought into existence, a relationship, perhaps, its existence can never be denied… or extinguished. I know that the two sides of your conscience are fighting furiously over what your next move will be… and I think that we both know which will win. I hold no illusion on my form nor veil over your eyes… the man you knew then and the man you see now are the same, and only a man of the coldest heart and most unfeeling soul could murder one whom they once called a brother."

"And what exactly do you expect me to do, then?"

"You are going to let me leave this place as I intended. The pieces are in place and my work has been done… I have no further reason to remain here. However, if provoked," Astos clenched his fists tightly, "I have no problem with eliminating a future annoyance first."

Verikk, sword still raised, took a few steps toward his foe. "As a paladin, I'm sworn to smite a demon whenever the opportunity may present itself."

…

…

He let his sword drop to the ground.

…

…

"But as a man of a warm heart and empathetic soul, I cannot turn my back on one that I once called a brother." Verikk hung his head slightly in silence, acknowledging defeat.

Astos smirked. "Though I can turn my back on you." He turned back to face the open fields once more and began the slow trek to his master's lair. He'd taken no more than four steps when a sudden cloud of smoke burst into view directly in front of him. Verikk leapt out at Astos from the pitch-black shroud and secured a vengeful grip around his neck with his right hand, the left having already caught the retaliatory attack from Astos.

Astos grinned with the realization that he would get to have his fun after all. "You betray your words and turn your back after all?"

"Am I not facing forward?" Verikk hissed through gritted teeth.

Astos smirked once again, watching Verikk struggle to keep the short blade that he'd caught with his left hand at a safe distance from his chest against the strength that Astos possessed. "Very well."


	50. Endless Waltz, part 14

Endless Waltz, part 14: One becomes two, two become one.

"Personally, I don't understand why you seem so depressed."

Rinn shuddered at the thought of moving to view the speaker of these disembodied words. He struggled to open his eyes widely enough to see clearly, tilting his head upwards with great pain in an attempt that he sorely regretted immediately after witnessing the results. Rinn's defeated, decrepit form had been found by none other than Sergin. After a moment's hesitation, Rinn let his head fall back to the ground as he emitted what can only be described as a half-grunt, half-sigh. "Go ahead and end it… it's not like I'm doing any good just laying here."

To his surprise, though, Sergin instead walked to Rinn's other side and rolled him onto his back. Rinn, completely in a daze, could barely register this strange event and made no resistance. Sergin sternly gripped the end of Rinn's robe and pulled it up above the mage's knee, providing him with a clear view of the blood on Rinn's pant leg. Upon pulling that back to about the same point as the robe, Sergin sighed and shook his head. As though it was no unusual act, Sergin pulled a switchblade knife out of a strap on the inside of his leg-guard and flipped the blade from its hiding place. At this, Rinn had no choice but to react.

"What the **hell** are-"

"Shut up."

"But-"

"Seriously."

Sergin hurriedly, though carefully, began to work with the knife on the roughly placed bandage over Rinn's leg wound. "Listen. A common mistake people make about Tonberry-inflicted wounds is trying to stop the bleeding. As you've seen, the knife doesn't cut very deep… it's the poison that gets you, and the easiest way to get it out is to bleed it out. A lot of ignorant people see the first stage of the poison's effect, the hemorrhage, and immediately try to stop the bleeding. With this act, they're signing their own death warrant." Sergin tossed the severed bandage over his shoulder and cut off a portion of his sleeve, handing Rinn's good arm the torn cloth. "Bite down on this; you've already let the wound close up partially… I'm going to re-open it."

Trent rounded the corner as quickly as he could; narrowly dodging a series of icy blades that embedded themselves into the wall he was so urgently trying to distance himself from. Kutota rounded the same corner shortly afterwards and launched himself towards Trent by jumping off of the wall which made a corner with the one now encrusted in ice. He buried both of his fists into the ground as he landed with a force that sent a noticeably large shock wave through the ground much faster than he could hope to run.

Kutota saw the satisfying "slip" and "thud" of Trent's resulting fall almost exactly as Crystal finally emerged into the hallway. With a flick of her wrist, another volley of icy knives were formed from the moisture of the dank walls and shot forward. Trent, running mostly on pure adrenaline, looked up quickly and flattened himself to the ground once more as they flew overhead. As he again tried to stand, Trent barely had time to react to a second onslaught of ice; he roughly tried to pin himself as closely to the wall as possible, but wasn't quick enough to avoid all of it. Thinking fast, Trent stomped firmly on the ground with the force of his famous "earth shaker stomp", bring an exceedingly large section of the ground up as a result. The large, rectangular segment came up towards Trent and would have hit him dead-on in the face had it not been stopped by the ceiling.

Trent sighed deeply and leaned on the newly formed barrier to catch his breath. Aside from some mumbling and occasional shouting from the other side of the barrier, Trent heard nothing but his own panting. His wandering mind began to focus on the issue at hand, but was interrupted with the sharp pain in his arm. Trent brought it closer to his eyes to identify the source, finding it to be a jagged, though deep, cut near his elbow. He noticed that it was quickly bleeding less and less, at first figuring this to be due to his natural regeneration, and saw that a thin layer of ice had formed just below his skin nearly the wound, extending to about two inches out all around.

Suddenly he noticed that his makeshift shield had become very… cold. Trent immediately pushed himself off of it as soon as he realized what had happened, and had his suspicions confirmed a mere second after he'd turned around to see the change. Kutota burst through the wall, which shattered into millions of flakes of ice, and made a quick jab at Trent.

Trent caught it just in the nick of time, having to catch another so soon afterwards that it seemed almost as though both punches were thrown at the same time. Having both hands occupied, however, left Trent vulnerable to Kutota's third attack. Using Trent's stiffly placed arms as tools instead of restraints; Kutota pulled himself toward Trent with a stalwart knee to the chest. Trent doubled over in pain and immediately had his balance completely taken from him by way of a swift sweep-kick from the monk.

Laying flat on his back and looking straight into the fiery eyes of his assailant, Trent subconsciously prepared himself to lose his facial features to the aforementioned assailant's fist. He realized shortly after he'd tried to escape before Kutota's attack that he'd already been pinned down with crystallized stakes without even feeling it, and that tiny voice in the back of his head that kept reminding him to "never give in" finally shut up as a result. Kutota rolled his sleeve up to expose his forearm and punched his opposite hand's palm with a confident smirk, looking down at Trent's helpless form.

"It's been fun."

In that brief second before Kutota's strike connected, though, Trent thought up a rather clever idea.

The field in front of the coliseum was completely empty, solely occupied by the grass that was grown upon it. As far as the eye could see, there was an open horizon… a delicate, cloudy sky stationed above it and a dry breeze providing the movement necessary to make one believe that the setting itself was a still-life painting. This description, of course, only applies to the field as it was twenty seconds ago.

The soft, green grass had been ripped from its humble resting place by a corpse-like figure, having skidded to a halt after being tossed onto it like a rag doll from more than thirty stories into the air. The figure coughed up a few chunks of stray debris he'd accidently taken on as he landed and sharply looked up to where he'd been thrown from… no one. He stood up and immediately dodged to the left to avoid a fist to the back of the head from his opponent.

Astos, having missed his mark, quickly faded away into nothingness again. Verikk looked to his left, then to his right, and left once more. _Where are you, Astos…? _His question answered a moment afterwards; Verikk proceeded to fade away as well.

For a brief few seconds, the fields were calm once more. But with a loud crack and a resounding explosion of dust and rock, Astos broke the calm. His numb body had been struck with such force that not only had his falling speed created a small sonic boom, but his connection with the ground left the earth with a large crater in its surface, four yards across in the least. Verikk faded back into view at the crater's edge and looked down. "You're forgetting who taught you how to use the shadowstep, Astos."

"Who said it was shadowstep…" Astos whispered barely above audibility as he yet again disappeared from view. Verikk vanished in response and there was again a silence, though it was ended much more promptly this time around. Verikk again found Astos in the shadows and prepared to strike, instead finding himself suddenly caught by the ankle and flung downwards into the fresh indent that Astos had formerly occupied. Astos reappeared at the base of the crater and met the falling form of Verikk with a sharp uppercut to the jaw, firing him up and into the view of a second Astos. The copy grabbed Verikk by his shoulders and delivered a fierce head-butt to his prey, sending him flying into the arms of yet another copy. This third Astos flipped himself upside-down, and deliberately fell face-first into the ground, taking Verikk with him until the last second before they both collided with a boulder at the bottom, at which point he vanished and left Verikk to take all of the damage.

Astos casually phased upwards out of the ground and walked leisurely toward Verikk, his arms folded across his chest. "I call that a shadow-barrage, think of it as a tribute to your technique." He respectfully bowed to his vanquished foe and ran a hand over his face to close his eyes for his final sleep. The skin he touched, though, immediately disintegrated into thousands of grains of sand. Infuriated, Astos punched the sand-clone of Verikk and watched the sand scatter into the wind before turning back to see the real Verikk facing him. "I suppose you think that you're clever?"

Verikk eyed his former friend with both disgrace and empathy. "The shadowstep takes you into our bordering dimension that we've come to know as the afterlife, if only for a time. You fade from existence in this life and reappear somewhere else using the afterlife as a cover to gain the advantage of surprise over your foe… that's the general theory. This 'barrage', though… since you're now of demonic blood and thusly cannot die, the afterlife is merely your playground… you can do anything you want with it, which includes making copies of yourself. After doing so you bring your multiplications of yourself into the real world and exploit the advantages of tactics, numbers, and surprise. How far you have fallen, Astos… bringing another life into this realm and thusly forcing someone else's life out of it… truly despicable."

"So the redeemer preaches to the redeemed…"

"The redeemed? You call this… this hideous thing that you've become… you call this redemption? Do you truly believe that anything good can come of this alliance with Sephiroth that you've sold your soul to gain?"

"Heh… eheh… heh heh heh… ahehehahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Astos nearly suffocated in his laughter, doubling over and holding his sides. "Alliance with Sephiroth?! Are you really that naïve, Verikk? As we speak, Lord Alucard is finishing up his takeover of Sephiroth's citadel, and that's if he took his time along the way! Now that my lord is in complete power of demon kind, we shall reign supreme and I will indeed be known to you as redeemed, truly one who is of similar essence with he who is to be your god!"

"Enough, Astos, I'm bringing you back whether you like it or not… in the same condition as you were before."

Astos again cackled mercilessly, accompanied by similar laughter from the clones that steadily began to fade into existence all around him. He spread his arms widely apart, gesturing to his copies. "Do you really believe that's still an option for you, Verikk? All that remains for you to ponder is whether or not you die honorably or die with resistance… you outmatched, outwitted, outskilled, and, above all, outnumbered."

A solid, gruff voice sounded out, as though called from far away, "I wouldn't go so far as to say that."

Suddenly all but one of Astos' clones were flung in all different directions amidst a pillar of smoke and rubble that had appeared from nowhere, as though something in the very center of them had exploded and left them to fend for themselves. Each clone faded back into nonexistence before hitting the ground, leaving only two demons and a Mithra to stare blankly into the smoke. As it began to thin out, Astos hung his head and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "This is really becoming more of a bother than it should ever be."

Gana stepped out of the hazy debris in full uniform, the red and gold of the outfit providing a valiant aura to his heroic entrance. "As my colleague said, Astos, we're bringing you back."

The last of the Astos clones faded into nonexistence of its own accord, though mostly in fear, leaving Astos alone. He sighed, "Traitor."

"Drink."

"Wha-?" Rinn, a bit dazed from sudden blood loss, focused his sight on the glass-like object Sergin had presented to him. Determining it to be a potion, Rinn simply looked up at Sergin, standing above him like some form of sentinel, unmoving. "Why?"

Without changing his positioning, stance, tone, or expression, Sergin responded, "I'm not going to take advantage of someone crumpled up in a corner, bleeding, for a cheap victory. We **are** going to fight, but you need to recover first."

"But don't you need-?"

"I don't get hit, so I don't need help."

Rinn, though slightly agitated at his opponent's overconfident attitude, took the potion and thanked him nonetheless. "With all due respect, Sergin, don't you think," Rinn paused as he took a hearty swig of the liquid, "that you sound a bit vain?"

"I hold no bias or opinion concerning myself, fact is fact." Sergin took a few steps backward towards the wall opposite Rinn. "I'll be back for you later."

"What?"

As soon as Rinn had uttered that single word, Sergin disappeared behind a stone barrier that had risen up almost directly in front of him, cutting him from Rinn's view. _Another shift…_ The room began to quake, though slightly, as the great arena-cube started its second reshaping process. The seconds passed by in periods which seemed like minutes, and then hours as Rinn's senses slowly came back to him through the effects of the potion. The last of the repairs, being the relocation of Rinn's shoulder, was completed roughly a minute after Sergin had disappeared from view. Rinn blinked a view times and shook his head sporadically, attempting to rid himself of what remained from his daze.

The barrier sunk back into the flooring to reveal Trent and Kutota locked in a match of endurance. To be honest, the "endurance" applied more appropriately to Kutota, whose punch to Trent's face had been intercepted by his target's open jaw. Trent, on the other hand, merely seemed surprised that his plan had actually worked; he'd known he could fit his **own** fist in his mouth, but not someone else's. Lastly, Crystal, whom was placed a few paces behind Kutota, couldn't help but snicker a bit at her partner's predicament, mostly the look on his face.

All four in the room looked to one another at some point amidst the silent confusion, and all four donned the same expression of horror a few moments later upon hearing an announcement sounded both inside and outside of the arena. "The crystal ball has been located by a Braska dorm participant; the arena will now be dismantled."

A deep rumbling that far surpassed any previous shift in magnitude started up, and the four combatants, still frozen in place, broke their mortified expressions to instead stare at a crack that had just formed in the ground as it began to spread from one side of the room to another.

"Dis…"

"Man…"

"Tled…?"

"Mmph."

**KRR-RAA-AAAACK!**

"Six beat slash!"

"Shadowstep."

"Repentance!"

"Protect. Fira!"

"Shell."

Gana withdrew the shell from Verikk and turned immediately to channel a bolt of lightning to Astos. Astos dove into a roll to his left, dodging the spell, and shadowstepped behind Gana as soon as he'd regained his footing. Reappearing inches behind the monk, Astos was intercepted by a bright, thin beam of light shot from Verikk's fore and middle fingertips, accompanied by the word "repentance" once more. Astos forced himself to a stop in mid-air, just barely letting the beam graze his chest. Again he used his shadowstep to relocate, this time in front of Verikk, crouched below Verikk's initial line of sight. Using extra second of time he gained from this maneuver, Astos leapt forward to try for another strike at Verikk's neck.

He was stopped short, though, by the firm grip Gana had managed to get on his ankle while he was in mid-attack. Gana let out a ferocious roar of strength as he wheeled around and swung Astos's shocked form over his head and face-first into the ground. He released Astos's ankle and immediately went for the collar of his shirt, bringing him once again into an arc above his head, in the opposite direction this time. Instead of slamming his opponent into the ground a second time, Gana flung him into the distance with all of his might.

Astos recovered from the quick string of attacks and became aware of his surroundings at about the same time; in mid-air, speeding backwards and right into Verikk's arms. He was caught by Verikk before he had time to adjust his positioning in the air and thusly stuck in the iron grip that was the paladin's headlock. He felt two bones in his neck shift in a way they weren't supposed to, immediately throwing his body back into shock. Quickly he was spun around by Verikk to face him; Astos had time only to register who he was looking at in the back of his mind before his eyes, as well as the rest of his face, were struck by a vicious concussive blow from Verikk in the form of a swift headbutt.

Astos stumbled back with a hand on his freshly wounded forehead, attempting to obstruct the flow of blood that had already run down half of his face. Verikk wasted no time between his attacks, finally given enough room to utilize his greatest strength. He saw that Astos had realized the same thing when he noticed the fearful, though brief, look in his eyes just before they were again forced to shut.

_Overdrive._

Verikk felt the already-unstable bones in Astos's neck shatter under the crushing force of his windmill-kick as it connected directly with its target. The sheer power of the kick sent Astos flying across the field and into the horizon well beyond the speed of sound, a speed that made his abrupt stop all the more painful. In the split second it had taken him to travel a half-mile over the battle-scarred terrain, Verikk had shadowstepped directly in his path and caught him square in the back with a firm front-kick. Again Verikk heard the grinding and snapping of bones as though they were mere twigs, this time coming from Astos's spine and ribs; crushed by a combination of recoil and momentum.

Before Astos's body had time to fall to the ground, Verikk again relocated, this time in front of him, and knocked him upwards once more with a knee to his face. Almost instantaneously, Verikk shadowstepped behind Astos, about four feet in the air above him, and brought his heel down with a force rivaling the earth-shaker stomp directly between his shoulder blades. The combined effect of having his shoulder blades pushed inwards and his head bent back positioned Astos in such a way that Verikk's upwardly-angled double-kick to his chest, which seemed be occur simultaneously with the first two, shot him like a rocket into the ever-darkening sky.

Astos was again met by Verikk at the pinnacle of his altitude, just as he had stopped rising in his limp form. Verikk again turned him upright, this time with a backflip-kick to the face. He reappeared behind and above Astos one final time, waiting for Astos's rotation to position him such that he could see Verikk before he was struck.

"No-!" was all that he had time to shout before he was silenced by Verikk's finisher. A bullet-kick straight down, edged by the side of his foot, hit him dead-on in the center of his face, launching him directly into the tough, arid land below. Verikk hung in the air for a few moments before he brought his hand up and extended his fore and middle fingers only. Aiming with an unchallenged accuracy, he uttered the single word that would end this fight.

"Repentance."

The cube? Shattered. The Braskas? Trying to bring the crystal ball to the starting point. The Leonharts? Trying to stop them. The stage? Set.

The final stretch began as a generally confused brawl, segments of the former arena still falling from the sky as the four combatants whom had come together just before its dismantling climbed and maneuvered around the debris to meet their opponents. Trent pushed Rinn out of the way almost immediately after the melee had begun, turning to him after he'd caught a shard of ice that had been heading directly to Rinn. "Leave these two to me, get **that **guy!" he shouted, pointing to the small figure casually walking towards the Braska dorm's starting point in the distance.

Rinn quickly went over the issue at hand in his mind: _Help Trent or win the match… save my friend some painful injuries or inflict some on Sergin…_ He made up his mind even quicker as he witnessed Trent take a one-two punch to the stomach and a large crystal spire to the back and then just brush some stray frost from his shoulders before running back into the fray. _Screw it, he's fine._

He turned and sprinted off towards Sergin, whom, to his surprise, seemed to be putting the crystal ball down onto the ground with great care, taking his time in the act. Sergin leisurely, if not mockingly, turned to face the decreasingly distant mage as he charged, his hands clasped behind his back in reverence. He kept his blank expression fixed on Rinn up until he'd stopped approximately two yards away. "I said that I'd fight you, Rinn, and I'm not going to cross that line until we do. If you win, you win it all; if I win, I win it all."

"Do you really expect me to-" Rinn shut his mouth quickly to parry Sergin's opening cut. A long stream of combined slashes followed; horizontal, diagonal, vertical, and thrust paired and grouped to form an almost waltz-like flow of motion that seemed as though it could continue forever. He decided to break this repetition as soon as possible; Rinn side-stepped out of the way of a downward strike and swung his staff into Sergin's ankle.

Sergin, however, merely stepped onto the staff's head, then came around with his other foot and kicked it out of Rinn's hands. He immediately put the point of his sword to Rinn's throat before he could go to take his weapon, causing both to stop in their tracks. "I win."

"You caught me off-guard…" Rinn growled at his opponent, becoming more and more irritated with his attitude by the moment.

"In the real world, no one is going to wait for you to ready yourself before they strike; why should I act differently?"

Without warning, the ground on which they were standing began to rise. The spectators, as well as the combatants, were alerted of the reasoning behind this by the words flashing on the giant screens that had been presenting the match to those out of its view; "New obstacle: the Tower of Power!"

_New!? What the hell do they mean by NEW!?_ Rinn thought in outrage as the ground beneath his feet steadily continued its climb upwards, Sergin still remaining unmoved. _There's no way I'm going through __**this**__ again!_

Sergin scoffed and thrust the backs of his two blades together, forming a double-sided short sword. He plunged it a few inches into the ground and, oddly enough, began to stretch as though having just awoken from a short nap. "You have ten seconds. Nine…"

Rinn, deciding it was best to give up on arguing with Sergin, whipped around and went straight for his fallen staff, teetering on the edge of the slowly-rising tower. He caught it by its very end, leaning over the side of the platform, and let out a sigh of relief, followed by a gasp of pain. Sergin had thrust his sword into the vacant space beside Rinn, close enough to graze his side with the keen edge of the blade. Sergin grasped the back of Rinn's robe collar and threw him backwards with every intention of crippling him again. This caused Rinn once more to let go of his staff, though it merely rested comfortably on the solid ground this time instead of over the edge of the tower, which had reached its peak height just as Sergin struck.

Rinn skidded to a halt on the hard sandstone roof of the tower. Clutching his side from recent wounds, he looked back up to his adversary. "I highly doubt that's the best you can do." He said through gritted teeth.

Sergin looked down at him, advancing slowly, and brandished his double-sided blade. "And I highly doubt you'd like to see the best I can do." He walked in a circle around Rinn's kneeled form and tauntingly fiddled with his sword. "Just go ahead and give up, Orunitia… you and I both know that you can't win this fight. So don't push it to the point of a fight to the death, alright?"

Standing up wearily, the black mage saw his staff on the other side of Sergin and decided to go for it. "No offense there, Sergin, but I'm afraid that's **my** decision." Rinn quickly darted to one side of Sergin, knowing that he would follow. Once he had met Rinn's dodge, Rinn leapt to the other side, foot turned outwards, and tripped Sergin. Making a mad dash to his trusty staff, Rinn dove into it, grappled onto the wood hastily, and turned himself on his back just in time to block a downward cut from Sergin. Throwing him off, Sergin landed solidly on his feet and again faced Rinn. Giving Rinn time to bring himself up, Sergin chuckled. "It looks like we're right back where we started, doesn't it?"

Rinn, panting hard, attempted to maintain a solid view of Sergin. With the afternoon's late sun just barely above his head, Sergin had become somewhat of a blurry, blackened shape in Rinn's eyes. He attempted to hold himself up on his staff, only to find that Sergin's attack had crippled it. Now shaky and falling apart, the staff had become useless. _You have got to be freaking kidding me._

Meanwhile, back on the ground…

Trent had his hands full with Kutota and Crystal. Bruised, battered, and cut in several places, things were looking bad. Now semi-conscious, Trent was thrown into the side of the tower that Rinn and Sergin had been dueling on. Just as he was able to stand and steady himself, Kutota lashed at him with a flurry of lightning-fast jabs to his chest. With each hit, the indent Trent's body was making in the wall grew deeper and deeper. Finally, though, the inside of the wall cracked and gave way, sending the warrior flying backwards into the chamber of cobblestone and cement.

Opening his eyes with just enough time to see a great shard of ice falling down onto his face from above, Trent summoned his remaining vitality to barrel roll out of the way. Dazed and weary, he raised himself onto one knee and spit a tooth out onto the ground. _Damn… that was my good molar, too,_ he thought to himself. A small shadow appeared over him and he clumsily jumped backwards to dodge, landing on his heels and toppling backwards as the icy cone crashed onto the ground he previously occupied.

_Alright, I have to stop this before I get seriously hurt._ Trent used every muscle and bone in his body to stand up straight, and wobbled out of the newly created hole in the wall. He held his hands up to call of brief cease-fire. Crystal and Kutota lowered their defenses a bit, though still remained vigilant.

"Look, I'm pretty sure you guys are tired from beating me around for about a solid hour… and I'm pretty tired from taking it all. So how about we just finish it now so we can all go home and laugh about this later?" Trent cemented his suggestion by spreading his arms, standing perfectly still, leaving himself open to even the most inaccurate attack.

Kutota bowed before Trent. "Your way is honorable, Trent. Thank you for coming to your senses."

Crystal took her staff in hand and dug it into the sandy flooring. With a chill in the air, the metallic pole became cold, iced over, and eventually became a solid pillar of ice. Lifting it horizontally and preparing to throw, she agreed with Kutota. "I'll try to make sure this hurts as little as possible."

"Thanks."

The pillar was lobbed towards Trent, the blunt end facing front, and was quickly followed by Kutota, his fist ready to fly. Kutota broke a bit off of the end with his solid punch, sending the icy monolith rocketing towards the red-haired warrior. Just as his time in the match was about to end, snubbed out by the hurtling ice spell, Trent put out his hands and caught the pillar.

Going with the momentum it had provided, similar to the beat slash technique Trent was so used to using, Trent whirled it around once and swatted Kutota away, unprepared, like a mere paperclip. Crystal, shocked, reached for her staff, disappointed when she quickly realized it was firmly sealed within Trent's new club. Crushing the great block of ice, Trent brushed away the remaining bits of frozen water and took the staff in hand, breaking it in half over his knee.

"You realize, of course, that when I send "finish it now", I meant I would stop playing around with you guys, right?"

Crystal would have reacted with fear had Trent not fallen onto his knee immediately after saying this; his chest heaving out large gulps of air to try to stabilize his breathing. _I may be unable to die from bleeding and broken bones… but fatigue… still…_ Trent toppled over onto his stomach, unable to stand any longer. _Rinn… please be better off than I am now._

Gana and Verikk stared in awe at what now laid in the crater left behind by Verikk's assault. Astos's form was perfectly still, aside from the very subtle movement of breathing, in its normal form. His hair had shortened and brightened slightly, and his usual facial features had returned, eye color and all. His muscle mass had also thinned a bit, scrawnier than the bulk of his demonic form. The wires and tubes from his external circulation system had either been severed or had fallen off on their own; he was left with the same tattered clothing that he was wearing earlier, with the exception of the belt, which contained notably fewer syringes than previously.

Most importantly, though, was the baseball-sized hole in the ground that marked the entrance to a tunnel which burrowed far beyond a viewable distance. Both Gana and Verikk looked up and at each other in unison. "It's all too familiar." Verikk said.

"Indeed… I'll go after it while you stay here and keep an eye on Astos."

"But we need to get him to the infirmary as quickly as-"

"Verikk, I need you close by in case it catches me first. Take care of him."

Rinn doubled over and hit the floor on his hands and knees, exhausted. He looked up through the blood and sweat that seemed to pour freely from every region of his face, as well as most other parts of his body. He felt light-headed, and his eyelids began to grow heavy in the hot sun.

Sergin swipe-kicked him across the face and watched his almost completely limp body flop into an abrupt halt. "Come on, Orunitia; let's see that famous trance of yours, shall we? I'm sure you're just as willing to bring it out as I am to see it."

Unable to even bring himself to his knees, Rinn spoke hoarsely while remaining on his side. "I don't… need that… to beat… you…" He coughed and felt the sharp, raspy pain of it scratch against the inside of his throat. The small droplets of blood that had hit the ground in front of him as a result seemed to grow more and more in similarity of color to the sandstone; everything Rinn saw began to blend into a single shade of black.

"There it is… this is going to be fun." Sergin smirked with self-satisfaction as Rinn's eyes closed in synchronization with his fading consciousness.

Kutota, more resilient than Trent had expected, leapt back onto his feet in the same instant that Trent had fallen to his knees. With a lightning-quick dash and a fiery-hot rage, Kutota sent Trent flying back into an unbroken section of the tower's side with a running-punch to the face. With a great crash, the force of Trent's body shook the very foundation of the stone monolith. Trent numbly hit the floor with a dull "thud" after falling out of the indent that the blow had caused him to make in the wall.

His vision began to fail him for the first time in his life; Trent had finally grown too weary to continue. _Never thought… this would happen…_ he thought to himself, finding that he was out of breath even in his thoughts. _I should have… given up… when they let me…_

Suddenly Trent's eyes jolted open.

Rinn, already close to the edge of the tower when he'd been kicked aside by Sergin, had been inched toward it even more from the powerful shaking caused by Kutota's punch. Most of his blood failing his brain, he attempted to think of a way out of this situation; however, he could think of none but those that would delay the Braska dorm's victory.

Inwardly, he smiled at himself. _At least that's something…_ he thought. With the mere movement of his shoulder, Rinn managed to tip the balance of weight over the edge of the tower in favor of the open air. He loosely felt his body slip over the tower's jagged end and begin its descent to the ground, barely registering the fact that he was falling until he'd traveled half the distance from the top of the tower to the bottom.

_Maybe… still… Trent… win… can…_ he thought to himself in a blurred daze, finally giving in to the dark unconsciousness that had been threatening to overtake him for the past thirty minutes.

Suddenly Rinn's eyes jolted open.

Had Rinn been alone, his trance would have activated subconsciously just before he collided with the ground at the base of the tower. An Orunitia from the past now sat in disappointment while continuing to watch Rinn, having prepared himself to take over Rinn's body. With this new development, though, he was denied access to it, and thusly all anyone could do was watch.

With a fantastic eruption of light in all directions, the roaring force and sound of a powerful tornado ripped through the coliseum. Sergin dug his fingers into the roof of the tower with the tightest grip he could muster, arduously attempting not to fall from his perch as the building began to fall apart. Sand from the arena floor was kicked up furiously, and it whipped harshly against Kutota and Crystal as they both tried desperately to cover themselves with the shield of ice that she had conjured.

A great, swirling vortex of what literally seemed to be pure, condensed light rose up from the point at which Rinn's body had collided with Trent's. It beamed up into the sky and broke through the thick layer of clouds like a bullet through a paper target. The bits and pieces of stone that had been torn off from the side of the tower, caught in the middle of the tremendous force, disintegrated as they were taken up by the sheer pressure put on them in the center of the vortex. It quickly began to thin out after appearing, though the revolution sped up in turn; sand flung by the wind could be compared to a mass of tiny bullets as it was continually shot in every direction with increasing speed.

It dispersed as quickly as it had come; a final shockwave of tremendous magnitude was released as it did. There was no Rinn. There was no Trent. In the middle of the warped, clockwise-spun circle of sand that was left as the only evidence of the event was someone who had never been seen by anyone in the coliseum, including himself.

The newcomer lifted his head and blinked a few times in silence. His sight was odd to him; the perfect sharpness of image that he was familiar with was there, but, as a brushing-back of his hair had proven, he wasn't wearing a hat to shield his eyes from the bright sun. For some reason the brightness didn't seem to bother him at all. Suddenly it made sense. _It's about time someone cut me… no, __**us**__ a break._

He brushed the sand off of his new robe, which bore a striking resemblance to a trench coat since it was open straight down the middle, and shifted his weight with a surprising comfort in the bright red, metallic plates of armor that lined the sleeves and back of it. The shirt he wore beneath it was similar to Rinn's typical robe in the iron clasps that ran down the center of it to keep it closed; though they seemed to more closely resemble gold now. The pants, however, were of Trent's possession, for the most part. Indeed they were black cargo pants like Trent had, but they were now stitched with a bright gold thread that seemed to weave its way throughout the entire ensemble. He noticed, though, to his pleasure, that an intricately-woven pattern of flames lined the bottom of his otherwise charcoal-grey robe (with the exception of the armor plates) in a satisfyingly complimentary crimson color.

He smirked, enjoying finally having the upper hand in the match. "I promise you, the Leonhart dormitory is going win this match… or my name isn't Rennt."


	51. Endless Waltz, part 15

Endless Waltz, part 15:

"Alright, then… doesn't this look entertaining?" Rennt spoke to himself, intentionally loud enough to be heard by his three opponents. "One, a mage… two, a monk… three, a… ninja… fighter… sword… thing."

Sergin spat on the ground and leaned forward slightly. "You're open," he said just before he bolted across the distance that separated him and Rennt, connecting a sword with his neck in the instant it took him to travel. To his surprise, a small shock ran up his arm as he heard a slight crack, noticing the damage done to his katana. Rennt chuckled.

"No need to be closed, if that's what I'm against… no offense to you, of course."

Sergin relaxed himself just a bit, realizing Rennt held no immediate threat, especially since both of his hands were comfortably secure in his pockets. "Looks like the Leonharts actually have something worth fighting, then, eh?"

At this, Rennt frowned and nudged Sergin away from him. "Well that's not very nice… you could have at least said something a tad more comforting, like 'oh wow, nice jacket'… you know, something like that. No need to get testy, not is there?"

"I'd sooner be tortured by Rukafelth himself before I speak even an utterance of grace to you!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… utterance? What is this, the fourth miasma or something? Here we like to speak," Rennt leaned in closely to Sergin as he enunciated, "een-guh-lish." He stepped back again and once more pocketed his fists. "But, as you would say, with all due respect… let's give the folks what they want, eh?"

"You took the words right out of my mouth!" Kutota yelled, suddenly appearing behind Rennt with a right-hook ready to strike the back of his head. Rennt, as though by muscle memory alone, caught his fist with his own, remaining facing Sergin. A curved, sharpened blade of ice thrown in by Crystal, however, forced him to break his grasp and turn to her, forgetting to jump to dodge a low sweep-kick from Kutota.

Lying on his back, Rennt quickly looked up before having to catch a fierce drop-kick to the face from Kutota, just inches away from his face. "How did you get over there so quick!?" he yelled to Crystal, who stood yards and yards away from him.

"Let's just say," Crystal yelled back, forming an "O" with her hands to project her voice, "I taught Zack a few tricks!" After saying this, a thin sheet of ice formed just inches above her head and dropped onto her; Crystal disappeared as the ice consumed her form, eventually reaching the ground and shattering.

_Why do I get the feeling…_ Rennt was interrupted from his own thinking as a sharp, concussive pain spiked into the back of his head. Recovering from the shock of the blow, he noticed that he'd been shot at quite a high velocity into the air and forward. Turning around in midair, Rennt looked back at the jagged ice spire that had been thrust up from the ground directly into the back of his head… Crystal stood beside it, waving in a half-cheerful, half-mocking way towards Rennt. _This might just be the Trent side of me talking, but now that I think about it, she's pretty damn cu-_

Again interrupted, Rennt was this time grappled by Kutota, whom had jumped up to intercept him using the rubble from the destroyed tower. Kutota, both arms wrapped around Rennt tightly, forced the both of them upside down as they began to fall, spinning rapidly as they did so. "What the hell is this!?"

The sun in their eyes and the wind whistling all around them, Kutota had just enough time to smirk before they hit the ground. "Pile driver."

**SLAM!**

Kutota had pushed himself off of Rennt moments before striking the ground, landing softly to the right of Crystal after rubbing it in with a stylish backflip in mid-air. "High five?"

"High five."

"Yeesh…" a voice mumbled from the center of the debris and dust from the blow. Both Crystal and Kutota stared at the silhouette of whom owned the voice in complete disbelief, jaws gaping. Rennt emerged from the cloud without even a slight limp, attempting to brush the sand out of his hair himself before resorting to a violent shaking of his head to finish the job. He peered back up at his stunned onlookers and smiled cheekily. He straightened himself out and allowed the two a few more seconds of silence before breaking it. He pounded once against his chest with a fist, "Trent's body," then used the same hand to point to his head, "Rinn's mind. It's going to be a long match if you guys keep this up, no offense."

Unable to decide whether they had actually taken offense or they were just still shocked, Rennt continued. "C'mon, it's technically a fair fight… two against two, sorta." Again there was silence.

_Alright, I have the use of Trent's body, seemingly unhindered by the normal laws of physics and science… and the intellect of Rinn's mind, on a much higher level of thought than most. Let's see what this combination can do…_

"First, I'll warn you… I don't know what I'm capable of in this form. Get ready to dodge."

"Overconfident just a bit, are we?!" Sergin's voice suddenly permeated all around. He leapt out from behind the nearest pile of rubble to Rennt, one sword ready to slash downwards onto him, the other pointed in the opposite direction. Rennt side-stepped out of the way as Sergin's sword smashed into the sand with surprising force, having to literally bend over backwards to avoid the second blade, which he now learned was held oddly to be thrown.

_This seems vaguely familiar…_ he thought moments before a thin, jagged spire of ice forced its way out of the ground and attempted to bury itself into his back. _Oooooooooh, that was the spine… ow._ Kutota was on him in the blink of an eye, bringing a blazing storm of punches along with him and causing Rennt to be pushed further and further down onto the frozen spine with each strike. It was a good ten or so seconds until Rennt even realized which pain needed to be attended to first, eventually deciding on Kutota. "That's it!" he shouted, grabbing Kutota, who was shocked since he could've sworn that Rennt had lost the use of his arms at this point, by the collar and half-rolling, half-pushing off of the spire to slam the monk harshly into the ground, kicking up a sandy mist in doing so.

Again Sergin came at him, and this time he was ready. Rennt straight-out caught the first sword swipe and pulled Sergin close to him, quickly attempting to give him a concussion with a head-to-head collision. Sergin ducked and instead attempted to drive his own skull into Rennt's stomach in order to disorient him. Though before his blow could meet its target, Rennt wrapped an arm around the back of his head and brought him face-first into his chest of his own accord. Figuring that Sergin must think he was trying to suffocate him, Rennt let him struggle to bring his head away from its captor. Rennt smirked before kneeing Sergin square in the Adam's apple and releasing him from his hold, allowing him approximately one second to writhe, though stunned, in pain. He viciously grabbed Sergin by the hair and gripped it tightly, taking a few steps forward to throw off his balance before slamming the back of his head into the ground like he had done to Kutota. _That'll keep you busy for a second._ Rennt turned finally to Crystal and immediately began his approach in the form of the blatantly offensive tactic known as sprinting.

Crystal, thinking quickly, let a torrential bolt of lightning fly from the palm of her hand, arcing overhead towards Rennt before being avoided with a deft side-step a moment later. She pulled the earth up underneath the foot that he had thrown his weight on after the dodge in an attempt to throw him off balance, succeeding only in giving him a base to jump from for an overhead swipe. Crystal, seconds away from being done in by Rennt, hurriedly tried to cause a disturbance in the air around him with an aero spell that sent him into a half-twist that he hadn't expected, and soon afterwards a rough collapse a few feet away from her.

Rennt scrambled upright and centered himself onto his target again, ready to finish the job this time. To his dismay, his fist was met not with Crystal, but with a rather thick sheet of ice that she'd risen to defend herself. Before he could free his half-buried hand from its frosty bindings, Rennt felt something grab the back of his head, and shortly thereafter he felt the front of it collide with the ice barrier. Again his face, now plagued with a dull ache from the collision, was brought away from the wall, and again it was slammed against it. Two more times he was beaten against the cold, harsh surface before finally being pulled away completely.

For a second or two, Rennt found relief in the absence of pain.

**THOK!**

Out of nowhere, Sergin appeared to deliver a swift and powerful windmill-kick directly to Rennt's side, visibly almost changing the shape of his opponent's torso with the sheer force of the blow. Needless to say, Rennt was flung onto the ground with agonizing force, landing face-first and skidding across the rough, sandy surface. Again recovering with amazing speed, Rennt pulled himself upright with a distinct agitation. He brushed himself off and spat on the ground, faintly tasting blood. "That… seriously hurt…" Rennt began, raising a hand into the air. "It's my turn, now."

A small circle of flame began to form in his upturned palm, clearly defined even against the blinding sun. A branch of fire formed just off of the side and began to extend outwards slowly, perfectly cylindrical and an inch thick. The three combatants of the Braska dorm gazed in confusion more than anything as the extension continued along, perfectly straight, two feet, three feet, four… suddenly the flames were extinguished as the final shape had formed. Rennt now held a large sickle, standing just slightly taller than his own height, in his hand. Attached to the ring at the base that was formed first was a long chain that wound around Rennt's right arm to a drastic extent, not seeming to end its coil.

"Let's have some fun with this, hm?" Rennt said as he flung the sickle outwards, grabbing it by the chain about a foot in front of him and whirling the entirety over his head before sprinting into the fray.

The three Braska members scattered in a panic, not expecting Rennt to pull out something like **that**. Rennt stopped where they had previously been and let the chain run loosely as he continued to whirl his weapon above his head, letting the radius grow rather quickly. He felt a slight resistance in his rotation after letting it reach about two hundred feet in diameter and quickly pulled it back in to see what he'd caught. Completely reeled in, he caught his scythe in one hand and his victim in another, finding it to be Crystal. He raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Well hello there, beautiful."

Crystal, expecting a witty retort as opposed to a compliment, was caught off-guard. "E-excuse me?" she barely had time to ask before she was pushed back again by Rennt, who began once more to spin his trusty weapon in the air.

"Back in the scythe you go!" he shouted, bringing it down to their level and catching Crystal in the crook of the blade as he did so, now increasing the speed instead of radius. He suddenly stopped the weapon in mid air, chain and all, as though it were caught by an invisible force. Crystal, however, was not stopped and thusly was sent flying across the arena, hitting the far wall long before she would've hit the ground and leaving a notably painful imprint in it. Rennt, remaining unmoved and gleeful, waved back to her, despite knowing she was either unconscious or incredibly angry, shouting "call me!" as he did so.

Rennt leant over to the side and put a hand to his ear, attempting to bring a comedic finish through over-acting. Upon hearing not one, but two "oof!"s, he couldn't help but break into a miniature victory dance. "Hoo-ah! Two birds, one stone! Who's hot? That's me! Oh yeah!"

He immediately regained a serious composure and grabbed his scythe by its true handle for once, wheeling around to parry Sergin. He raised an eyebrow mockingly at Sergin's shocked expression, smiling quite smugly as he did so. "You interrupted the victory dance for this? Tsk, tsk… Sergin, I'm disappointed."

Sergin ran the length of his blade across Rennt's scythe and threw it back as he stepped backwards himself, raising his dual katanas offensively once more. "If I have to hear you celebrate one more time, I'm not going to be held responsible for what I'm going to do to you… it's a promise."

It happened in an instant.

Sergin felt a slight twinge in his right hand and subconsciously glanced over, finding nothing out of the ordinary… nothing at all. His eyes burst wide open as he examined his left; nothing again. He looked forward to see Rennt, in the ultimate act of annoyance, clutching both swords in his own left hand, twisted beyond recognition. Rennt smirked and let them fall to the ground, jamming both of his hands into the pockets of his jacket and letting his scythe rest in the crook of his arm. "What's the word I'm looking for… oh yeah, 'woo'?"

The Braska dorm's ninja looked on in shock at both the skill and absolute ignorance of his opponent, speaking in a notably forced calmness as he addressed the situation. Crossing his arms across his body, Sergin unsheathed two more blades from the holsters strapped to either side of his waist. The blade held in his left hand bore a smooth engraving on it; a delicately chiseled shape in the form of a dragon wound itself around the blade, the indentation filled in with an equally appealing sapphire that had been cut to fit the shape. His right blade, however, was notably rougher… the actual blade-side of the sword was almost saw-like in appearance, the smooth texture of the forged metal giving way to a jagged edge. On this sword was another dragon, though this one was much more primitive-looking, as though it had been cut in by only the crudest and most untrained hand; a dark ruby had been cut to fit the indentation in this one.

"I warned you, and now you've called out the beasts… level four power seal, unleash."

Sergin vanished.

--

**It's been an eventful few months, guys, I can say that much. I spent so much time dreading writing this, wondering how on EARTH I would get it to compare to the last one. I figured that chapter length would be the greatest medium for me to get all of my ideas onto one page, but then I just put it off because I didn't want to sit down and write for that long… so it never really got done. I just recently realized, though (and God only knows why I JUST realized…), that if I had to top my chapter length/quality every time, I'd probably be a literary deity by now! Heck, the same goes for any author, you can't just top yourself every time… it makes it impossible to write in the first place!**

**So anyway, I'm back. Let's have some fun with this.**


	52. Endless Waltz, part 16

Endless Waltz, part 16: Fruition

"Why can't one side just win so that we can all go home? I mean seriously, it's been around three hours now." Rennt explained to his unseen opponent. He let his posture slack a bit upon accepting the fact that he was either being ignored or just out of earshot. "Least he could do is stay here instead of just running away…"

"Who said anything about running?"

The weapons of both Sergin and Rennt collided in a stalemate of assault and defense, literally causing sparks to fly as they did so. _Ow, that really hurt! _Rennt thought as he felt the recoil, doing his best to keep up with Sergin's rapid swings, which seemed to come from every direction at once. He felt the edge of one of the blades nick his left arm and he winced in pain again, this time realizing something amiss. _Wait a minute…_ he continued to think as he began to be pushed slowly back by the ninja's onslaught, _that "hurt"?_

Rennt realized now that he'd lost the ability to accurately analyze his opponent's attacks. They'd begun to blur amidst the flurry of steel, no longer able to be seen as a single strikes. Again Sergin managed to cut him, this time across the chest, and yet again there was a searing pain to go along with it. _How am I feeling pain in Trent's body? That doesn't make any-_

Sergin managed to bypass Rennt's withering defenses and slammed both of the hilts of his swords, tips first, directly into Rennt's chest with uncanny force. Rennt lost not only his voice from the blow, but his very existence. In a significantly less spectacular lightshow than that of his merging, Rennt was split into his two original forms with a single, bright flash of light. Trent was the first to hit the ground, about twenty feet from Sergin, allowing Rinn a buffer as he came crashing into him immediately afterwards.

.'.'.'

Jiece hung numbly above the doorway, still restrained, still muzzled, and almost delirious hanging upside-down for so long. _And to think I never even got a chance to do so many things with my life… now the world will never know the glory of real music… now the galaxy will never have its shining star, me, back… now the universe will contain a soundless void forever unfulfilled in the wake of my passing… these are the end of times, the closing of days! Repent! REPENT!_

"Calm down, you aren't dead yet, man."

Jiece suddenly found himself upright and standing, though not in the dorm as he was before… the room now was of the purest white, spatially endless in every direction. He put a hand up to protect his eyes from the blinding light just in front of him, where the voice had come from. He tried to speak, but found that his vocal chords were completely useless in the glory of the blazing light; it pained them even when Jiece **considered** talking. He desperately, if not instinctively, raised his entire arm and turned away slightly to protect himself.

"It's alright; I'll give you a while to adjust."

The while passed leaving Jiece, for reasons unknown to him, exhausted, sweating, and overall aching. He realized shortly that the light had dimmed, and he turned back to face the figure that had invaded his hallucination. Every aspect of his vitality was restored as he gazed in awe at the man who had presented himself. Jiece muttered in amazement… he would've recognized this lanky figure anywhere; the trademark hairstyle, the defined cheekbones, and of course, the famously pronounced lips… this man was:

"S-Steven…Tyler!" Jiece shouted like a giddy schoolgirl.

"Bingo" replied Steven.

"You're Steven freaking Tyler!"

"Indeed I am."

"You're THESteven Tyler, vocalist from Aerosmith!"

"Yup."

"A Rock and Roll legend!"

"Alright, calm yourself down, there, Jiece… you've got a lot to do."

Jiece, deciding not to reiterate the presence of Steven any longer, attempted to settle down. "A lot to do? I don't even know where I am! What can you expect me to do in a hallucination, anyway?"

"This ain't a hallucination; it's a place where any and all true musicians go at some point or another to learn what it really is to play music. We don't really know what it's called though, so most of us just call it Valhalla." Steven stood up and clapped his hands together once, standing completely still for a moment.

Just as Jiece was about to question the silence, the room began to shake violently… having nothing to grasp for safety, Jiece fell to the floor clumsily. He shook his head quickly and looked up to see the metamorphosis happening around him, mouth agape in wonder. As though someone had spilled a series of cans of paint about the room, colors and textures of all kinds began to make their way across the flooring and up the walls of the room in small streams as if led by thousands of tiny paintbrushes. Soon there wasn't a room at all; the invisible artist painting the scene had put both Jiece and Steven on an embroidered metallic surface separated into numerous plates which soon became a metallic platform. Beyond the platform, grass began to grow… though it was tinted darkly, regardless of the fact that there was a light source just overhead. Jiece noticed this and looked up to see a spotlight… no, two… three… soon dozens began to appear in variant shades of red, yellow, green, and more. By the time he looked forward again, the grass had spread on far past his vision would allow, with the makings of a city appearing on the horizon. A starry night sky slowly faded into view as Jiece suddenly felt a cool breeze brush past both him and the horde of cheering people appearing, one by one, in front of what he could now identify as a stage.

Jiece looked up to Steven, who'd taken hold of a bright red stringed instrument that the bard couldn't identify and offered the neck of it to him. "What… is it?" Jiece wondered aloud, in complete shock of its unique beauty in his eyes.

"That," Steven started as he pulled a harmonica from his newly-materialized white jacket, "is what Joe over there likes to call a 'series ten firebird'… though I guess you've never held an electric guitar, have you?"

"…electric?" Jiece mumbled questionably as he looked in the direction that Steven had pointed in, finding Joe Perry tuning his own guitar. Joe glanced up and gave Jiece a quick wave before returning to his instrument.

"Figured as much… just throw the strap over your shoulder and learn as you go."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Jiece cried out, taken aback by recent events. "Where the heck are we? What is this? What are we doing? I'm so confused!"

Steven shook his head and let out a single, short laugh at Jiece's antics before turning to him with a knowing grin. "This is Hyde Park, London… and it's where we're gonna teach you how to rock!"

.'.'.'

Each and every one of Sergin's attacks met their marks dead-on, needing only one attempt to do their work right. A quick jab met Trent's nose, giving him a sharp, painful distraction long enough to be hit with a rough kick to the stomach by Sergin, followed by a drop kick over the head after he'd doubled over from the first. He whipped around to slice through the fire spell directed at him by Rinn, which seemed to merely fade away in the presence of his blade. He again vanished with only the slightest disruption of the sand beneath his feet and appeared to Rinn's left with a crushing right-hook punch before relocating to his right, where the punch's force had directed him. He put the sword tip at Rinn's neck and growled: "fire."

The same spell he'd cut through flew from the edge of his weapon and exploded upon collision with Rinn's throat, tossing him backwards and into the air raggedly before allowing him to stop with a graceless crash into the ground.

"You can still fight… the both of you. This much is true. However, I'm going to have to ask you to give up… you're wasting both my time and that of the audience with this display. Stay down to lose or get up to forfeit."

Trent heaved himself up, using his leaf-blade sword as a balance. "You… cough obviously don't know us very well… we're supposed to give that speech…" Trent was silence immediately after with a swift knee to the gut paired with a roundhouse kick across the face, performed with the utmost agility by Sergin before he had even touched the ground. Trent made sure to signal his consciousness to the judges by voluntarily turning over onto his side after being felled yet again to let out a muffled groan of pain. Sergin turned to Rinn, whom was unexpectedly also attempting to retaliate. He rubbed his sore throat in defiance of Sergin's confidence before speaking out in a very hoarse and raspy voice.

"Only we wouldn't have put it quite so… harshly…" he smiled at this last word.

"Yeah, what is this…?" Trent began as he again stood up on the other side of the ninja, provoking a stunned look from him as he'd predicted. "It's like you're trying to win the 'biggest jerk in the universe' contest or something."

Sergin looked from one to another with a face growing more and more furious with each turn. "Why don't you **stay** down for once!?"

Rinn raised his staff in defense and took his stance, an action immediately imitated by Trent. "We don't work that way… you'd best learn that."

**KRACKA-THOOM!**

All three of the fighters, as well as a large portion of the audience nearby, were completely and literally blown away by a fierce explosion on the arena wall nearest to them. Rinn specifically was sent rolling across the ground, sand and other assorted grit flying in every conceivable direction, causing every thinkable aspect of vision to be blacked out in the chaos. He was barely able to open his eyes before the aftershock sent nothing less than a tidal wave of sand crashing down on him, as well as the other fighters. He was again forced across a sizable portion of the ground before he could look up again, unsure if he was even still conscious.

Rinn couldn't feel the world around him from the strange aura he felt… had he gone numb? His hearing lost from the shellshock returned slowly, as did his eyesight while recovering from the irritation caused by innumerable face-first trips across the arena. There was a man… hardly. It was still hard to identify anything with such hindered senses, but Rinn was sure the figure he saw stepping through the hole created by the explosion was a human of some sort… right?

The "man" was obscenely tall, roughly judged by Rinn to be around seven feet in height. However, he was also remarkably, if not sickeningly, thin… probably weighing no more than 100 or so pounds, if even that. He wore a crimson red trench coat which sported a design featuring thin, vertical, "slimming" black stripes for every two or so inches of red cloth, which only added to the illusion of his pencil-like figure. Beneath it appeared to be a typical white dress shirt and typical black suit pants, both of the colors of which also appearing on a particularly haunting article of his garb: a mask.

Though his version was still shaky and blurred, Rinn could somehow see the mask with perfect clarity. It appeared very smooth, yet very fragile… as though it were glass. One side featured a black base with a white circle in place of an eye, sporting a border of small, triangular shapes of a similar white which were evenly spaced around it, suggesting excitement. The other side, though, was of a starkly white base with a pitch black circle in perfect symmetry with the other for an eye, this time with a black tear drop mark just below it to represent sorrow. The oddest aspect, however, was the small chain that was wound around his head, mask included, about two or three times. Though it was distinctly black for the most part, tints of blood-red coloring were miscellaneously splattered across it, each link showing off a razor sharp barb at its conjunction with the next link. There were no eye holes, and there was no visible space made for breathing… only the blank, hollow stare.

Rinn's daze receded much more slowly than he would've liked, and his hearing had strengthened to the point that he began to make out what the stranger was saying.

"Ough whe err nough alough uh slay yough nhow… Lord Alucard wough," he began in a voice lost on Rinn's dulled hearing, which continued to grow sharper as he continued to speak: "loike yough to knouw thah he intends to let each and every one of you meet your own demise in your own way, on your own time… he has mercifully decreed that you may all do so at your leisure once you no longer possess any free will. That is all he has to say to you. As for me, however… I have merely three things to say… I am taking my leave from this place in exactly nineteen minutes and forty-two seconds. I am going to use this time now to get acquainted with my normal form once again…" he paused briefly as he suddenly pulled out a set of throwing knives, each marked with a single red spade at the hilt, "by method of mass slaughter. I am Kei, and it's been a pleasure."

.'.'.'

**Well, I'm more or less finding a good system to work with for writing… but knowing me, I probably just jinxed it by letting you all know that. So instead I'm going to go ahead and inform you that I have finals starting Wednesday of next week, so I've got to start up with the studying… fun times, eh? Actually, I think that makes Hero Academy's 3****rd**** set of interrupting finals! That's kind of cool when you think about it, actually…**

**Anyway, needless to say, I won't be writing during that time… but anything's possible, right? I'm going to try to get back on it as soon as possible, so I can finally get to wrapping up this story arc so that I can continue with the REAL storyline… oops, did I say too much? Heh, heh, heh…**


	53. Endless Waltz, part 17

"Hm? Did I interrupt something?" Kei wondered aloud when he noticed the three combatants. "I didn't even know the Hero Academy held public executions… or was that my fault?" he then asked with a gesture towards Sergin, who remained completely unmoving, with his leg in a very peculiar and most likely broken position. "At least there's you two."

Rinn and Trent both stood their ground, immobile with fear more than anything. Just looking at the man… not even him, really, but at that wretched mask… Rinn's gaze seemed to revert back onto it over and over again, regardless of how many times he attempted to look elsewhere. It seemed to pull him in, hypnotizing his sense of sight. Rinn sincerely believed that he had been in this trance for the better half of ten minutes within the moment's pause between Kei's taunting and the voice that brought Rinn back down to earth.

"Make that three."

Rinn, Trent, and Kei all looked in the direction of the explosion to bear witness once again to the billowing smoke. All that could be seen to them, however, was a pair of ears protruding from the black clouds… cat ears. A figure leapt with unthinkable strength out of the smoke and high into the air, catching the sun's light as it went and rendering it indefinable except for its silhouette. Rinn, however shocked, knew.

Aran, fully armed except for his cap, landed between Rinn and Trent and whirled around to face Kei along with them. "I got up to help you two in the match, but I wasn't expecting this."

"To be honest," Rinn smirked, "neither were we."

Aran glanced over towards Sergin and made a quick analysis of the situation. "How's he?"

Rinn also looked back briefly to attempt to make an assessment. "I'd say his body went into shock from the explosion… or from the use of that 'seal' thing he used against Rennt… the leg was just bad luck with rubble."

Looking to Kei again, the white mage changed the subject. "And him?"

"No clue."

"I have one…" Trent said under his breath.

Both Aran and Rinn, still on their guards, turned slightly towards Trent. "What?" Rinn asked.

"What he is… I've seen it. His strange figure, that shade of red that he's wearing, the red spade on the knives and most of all… the mask." He gulped and, surprisingly, tensed up significantly. He raised his leaf-blade sword and pointed it towards Kei imposingly. "You're a member of the Red Spire!"

Kei clapped his hands together thrice, the knives clanging against one another as he did so. "I didn't realize that such commonplace people actually knew about our organization… I'm also pretty shocked that mass anarchy hasn't broken out at the mention of it… or are you more than you at first appear, boy?"

Proudly, Trent buried the tip of his blade into the ground with both hands and let them rest upon the skyward-pointed hilt. His expression became the definition of stoicism, a militant and disciplined aura forming around him all the while. "I am Trent Xavier Cedric the Second, first son of Isor Cedric the Great, Captain of the Guard of the Royal Family of the Human Continent of Graphia. And as the lone representative of the Royal Guard here present, it is my solemn and humble duty to repel anyone, be he human or demon, who belongs to an organization whose sole purpose is to rid Graphia of his Majesty, King Aerolian, and his bloodline henceforth. You are my enemy, and I am your bane!" And without waiting so much as a second to consider Rinn or Aran in the matter, Trent grasped his blade with both hands and ripped it from its earthly rest, immediately charging towards Kei.

"Bind!" a voice in the distance yelled.

Trent froze as the spell gripped him. In confusion, Rinn and Aran froze as well. Kei merely cracked his neck with impatience. "What now…"

Gana slipped the same small, black ring that he'd used during the trials into his pocket and began to run down the stands of the arena, the top of which he'd cast the spell from, towards the actual battleground itself. The stone seating was literally crushed under the sheer force of Gana's steps as he sprinted towards his goal, only to stop himself a bit too late upon noticing something. "A shell!?" he grunted in rage as he caught himself from slamming into the barrier.

As Gana's outrage suggested, a translucent, hexagonally-patterned dome had been placed over the entirety of the arena, leaving no possible entrance or exit as long as it held steady. Kei, without even looking at the monk, began to speak to him. "A new advancement in demon magic that I made up, Gana… do you like it? It's a shell that not only blocks both magical **and** physical attacks, but throws an equal and opposing force back at whoever inflicts any damage to it. I put it up after I made my way safely into the arena, and I personally know that no mystic or tangible force known in this world can break through it."

Suddenly the sound of a mass of people screaming in fear overtook the arena; Kei laughed. "It looks like they've found out that there's another, similar spell blocking all of the exits. I meant what I said… I intend to spend my time here as a good chance to warm up, and that'll be a lot tougher if I have my targets moving independently in unlimited space..."

"You're sick! First you possess poor Astos, and now you intend to commit mass homicide on the innocent people who came here today to witness the match?!" Gana shouted out to the demon, pounding his fists in anger upon the shell.

At this, however, you could tell that Kei was smiling beneath the mask. "If I were to commit a mass homicide, this inner shell would have to come down… and the only way that's happening is if the only thing left alive within it… is me."

Gana stepped back, realizing what was being said. "What are you saying?!"

Kei finally turned to face Gana directly. "The master, Lord Alucard, has a special interest in these three students right here… I'm to test them. If they're not worth my time, then they'll die. If they die, the barrier is dispelled… and I'll appease my thirst using the rest of the souls within the outer barrier. It makes perfect sense, really… I don't see why you're making such a fuss."

"You-! You-!" Gana was at a complete loss for words; there was nothing that he could do to help his students this time. They were, with no possible modification of the situation existing, to fight Kei three-on-one without any outside assistance… and survive? For the first time in many, many years, Gana felt the crushing force of the failure to uphold his duties bear down upon him. _They're so young… why must this happen to those who've yet to experience life in its fullest?_

Trent suddenly loosened up considerably, free from the bind. He felt a hand on his shoulder and whirled around quickly to see Aran, immediately feeling his broiling rage subside. Aran spoke sternly, though softly: "We fight as a team, Trent. There is honor in more than a valiant sacrifice." In the solemn gaze of Aran's hazy, gray eyes, Trent saw truth. He regained himself and shook his head a bit. It was only then that he realized the throbbing of his head had been taken away as well, and the soreness that had overtaken his body altogether. He looked up to Aran, who merely nodded before taking his hand off of the fighter's shoulder, still glowing a whitish-blue with his healing magic, and bringing it over to Rinn to mend him as well.

"Do you think we can take him?" Rinn asked with an expression that pleaded for honesty.

"Probably not." Aran replied darkly.

"Are… a-are we going to die?"

"Hell" Trent again jabbed the edge of his sword once again into the ground, this time gripping the hilt with only a single hand, leaving the other to his side "no."

Kei was the first to make a move, rushing at the three without as much as a tinge of preparation. Aran, surprisingly, was the one to meet him. With a deft sidestep and a quick duck, Aran weaved through Kei's throwing knives with feline grace and wound up to knock him in the chest with the head of his staff. Kei literally dropped onto his knees and, using his somewhat small momentum, leaned back as he slid under the strike. He immediately rose with an agile jump and wheeled around upon his heel before pulling out three knives in each hand, angling them like claws and making another rush towards Aran.

Aran, however, was significantly less versed in physical combat and hadn't fully realized the impossibility of blocking a close-combat strike with a staff. Luckily, though, Trent had.

**KA-SHING!**

Two of the blades were knocked from Kei's loose grasp as Trent looked up from his own sword, currently being used to block the other four from Aran. Should his eyes have been visible, Trent would have expected they'd widened at this point as the demon spoke from behind the mask: "How?"

Trent spat the last of the recent bloodshed from his mouth and glared at his opposition. "Secret Zodiac Style: Charge of the Ram!" he shouted as he suddenly gained mammoth-like strength. He sprinted clean across half of the arena, pushing Kei, who was completely beside himself in surprise, along with him. Despite Kei's best efforts to attempt to dig his own feet into the ground to stop Trent, his speed remained unchanged until he was rammed back-first into some of the spare rubble still left over from the tower of power. This was at least what Kei at first thought… after taking the concussion from Trent's charge; it had taken him a while to realize that he'd only gained speed.

The fighter trudged onward, being sure to hit every possible substance that could put up any sort of resistance or damage towards Kei as he went. To everyone watching from the other side of the shell, it seemed as though the stones had exploded on their own accord as Trent ran through them; clearly they didn't grasp the difference between strength and a Cedric. Finally making it out of the field of wreckage, Trent took his sword back to his side in his left hand and took Kei's collar with his right, gripping it tightly. With a single turn, Trent hurled his foe at the arena's boundary with all of his might, using the maneuver as a way to stop himself as well.

Kei flailed through the air in the few seconds it took him to travel from Trent's right arm to the wall, hitting… no, **landing** on the wall with his own right arm and two feet, using it as his own stopper. Before Trent could react to the turn of events, Kei kicked off of the wall and came careening towards his target with a knife at the ready, this time ensured to finish its work.

And finish it would have, had it not shattered upon contact with a risen stone wall that had suddenly appeared to defend Trent. More quickly than one could have even thought of the idea, Kei let go of the knife and turned his palm instead to be parallel with the wall, stopping himself and saving his hand the fate of being crushed. The wall dissolved quite quickly back into sand and fell to the floor, revealing Rinn where Trent had been previously. Kei panted once and focused his gaze on the mage. "Pyromancy and Hydromancy are the magical schools taught to mages at this school… who the hell taught you Terramancy?"

"The same man…" Rinn began as he once again started to draw the sand from the ground into a solid, single piece, this time congregating around his fingers. "Who's tending to the soul you decided to rip apart for this 'study' on us." All at once, the pits and pieces hardened into a stone variant of brass knuckles upon Rinn's hand. Immediately the hand dropped limply towards the ground as though weighted down significantly. "So excuse me if I use it in his absence."

Rinn let out a great heave as he lifted up his right hand, burdened by the stone knuckles. In perfect unison, the sandy flooring to his right side began to stir, soon exploding into a great cloud of millions and millions of pieces of rock. They hastily condensed into several similarly-proportioned cubes of impressive size, save for a central, hexagonal figure they were arranged around. The fourteen cubes took shape around their base, forming a giant, floating, stone hand; three cubes seemingly hinged together made up each finger, and two made up the thumb. Rinn clenched his fist menacingly, watching his replica do the same without hesitation. "Clenched, this stone replica is eight feet tall, seven feet wide, five feet deep, and unbreakable to any force aside from my own will… say hello to Monolith!"

Kei's unseen jaw most likely dropped. "Hello" he said weakly.

**THOK!**

With a great, sweeping slap through the air just in front of Kei by Rinn, Monolith soon followed and cleanly brushed him out of Rinn's line of sight, sending him flying and skidding across the arena much faster than anyone should ever safely be sent. Rinn made a gripping motion in front of him and soon heard the yelp of pain from his target. He brought his clenched fist closer to himself and looked up, finding Kei caught in Monolith's grasp as expected.

"Now tell us everything… **everything.** Who are you really? Why did you kill Astos? What does Alucard want with us?!"

"Now then, it wouldn't be fun…" Kei began, slowly and easily opening up the grip of Monolith with his own two arms, showing that its strength wasn't as impressive as he'd shown it to be after all, "if I just told you."

He vanished from view, and Monolith, having been attempting to squeeze him with all of its might, crumbled in on itself from the force of closing the gap he'd made. A single footstep appeared several yards to Rinn's left, then another one a few feet from his right. Another in front, behind him, getting closer. _Which way are you going to hit from…_ Rinn thought anxiously, wondering which direction to summon another stone wall to. He learned that he wouldn't have to do so, however, with the appearance of a small shock wave just in front of him. Just in the center of it was Kei, again blocked by Trent's broadsword. This time, though, Trent had been empowered by Aran's haste spell.

The two struggled against each other's strength, the occasional spark flying to either side of the collision of blades. "Just try to use your speed to get out of this one, demon!" Trent snarled through clenched teeth.

"Very well." Kei responded quite simply.

Kei vanished.

Trent vanished.

In the world of super-sonic speed unable to be registered by any of the multiple onlookers, the two clashed again and again. Small shock waves were again thrown this way and that, appearing in every possible position, but never showing the two figures themselves. Kei skidded across the entirety of the arena instantly, leaping off of the wall directly into Trent, who deflected the head-on attack and used it to flip himself around in order to jump from the same point, immediately following his opponent. Both crashed into the other side of the battlefield, leaving a split second between each collision. Trent appeared beside Kei, only inches away, and slashed out at him fiercely. Kei jumped above the low blow, still careening across the ground, and tried to lash out at Trent overhead, only to have the fighter side-step away from it and whirl himself around entirely to attempt to cut the demon horizontally. Kei merely foresaw the move and literally used the sword as a stepping stone as it crossed his path, leaping high into the air as he pushed off of it.

Trent jammed the blade into the increasingly rough ground to stop himself and became visible for a fraction of time before vanishing again to give chase. The two were literally bouncing off of the walls in every conceivable fashion, colliding with frightening power, the force of the shock waves increasing all the while. Then, all at once, they both stopped. In the dead center of the arena, far away from the edge where Rinn and Aran had been left, both fighters stared each other down to catch their respective breath.

Kei needed only one breath, again returning to a normal breathing pace immediately after he'd taken it. "Aren't you tired yet, Trent? Surely you don't believe that you can keep up with me much longer? Haste doesn't last forever, you know."

Trent, much less composed and significantly more exhausted than Kei, spoke hoarsely through his furious panting. "Haste… does… multiply speed… though…"

"Your point?"

"If… I can… be faster… than… you… without haste… then I can… outrun you… now…"

"And how do you plan to gain such a speed? You're suggesting that you increase your base speed in your exhausted state and multiply its effectiveness with that worn haste spell? Honestly?" Kei couldn't help but laugh at this foolishness.

Trent took one great breath to get his next sentence out with stopping. "Secret Zodiac Style: Agility of the Monkey!"

Trent inhaled deeply and began to walk, giving Kei full reason to continue to laugh. It wasn't long before Trent broke out into a run, apparently making a wide, circular path around Kei. The run turned then into a hearty sprint, and then into a breakneck speed. It wasn't long before Trent was again lost in the eyes of Rinn, Aran, and the rest of the onlookers. To Kei, however, Trent might as well have been sitting still. He didn't expect, however, that he would be able to change direction so quickly. Trent turned around on a fraction of a dime and headed in the exact opposite direction without changing speed. In fact, Kei realized, his speed was still increasing. After a few moments of time, Trent became difficult to keep track of. The sand of the arena was being kicked up in every thinkable direction at every point of Trent's sudden turns, giving the impression that Kei was surrounded by a series of geysers in the ground. Soon, there was nothing **but** the sand to witness.

Even through the sensitive and scrutinizing eyes of a demon, Trent was lost. He appeared for an near-incomprehensibly short segment of time in front of Kei, slightly to the left. He was directly behind Kei in the next segment, and an inch away from his right shoulder the next. Kei's eyes widened immensely underneath his mask as Trent's speed continued to increase exponentially, and soon he could barely fit his mind around the idea that such agility was possible, even by a demon lord's standards!

It wasn't long before Trent literally appeared to be in two, three, five, and then twelve places at once! Kei was literally surrounded by twelve identical Trents, all standing with their arms folded, wearing a keen smirk. "The ultimate technique of the Monkey school of the Zodiac arts: The Mirage Clone!"

All twelve Trents vanished as the single entity had done earlier, three appearing in a triangular formation around Kei. The Trent behind him attempted the straightforward attack plan: a stab in the back. Kei dodged the blade with a swift hop into the air, half-expecting a clone to strike from above. He was half-right. Two came at him from either side in the air, disappearing before either actually managed to hit him… a third suddenly appearing above him just as he was caught off guard, literally smacking him down to earth with the flat of his tremendous blade. Thinking quickly, however, Kei ripped a smaller knife from its resting place at his side and used his having been struck down to his advantage, awkwardly turning a collision into a pounce directly onto one of the copies. Kei cut into the body ferociously, only to have it fade away from his attack. Landing on all fours, with a knife in one hand, Kei heaved himself upwards as quickly as he could to continue.

Six of the clones materialized directly in front of Kei, four of which vanished a moment later. The two remaining quickly stepped to either side of him while two more appeared just behind him, all four of which ironically vanishing just as they had previously. It didn't take Kei longer to understand. _He's trying to fake me out at every turn… he's actually moving fast enough to pull back from any conceivable attack at the last moment, but also fast enough to dodge any kind of counter I can come up with… as soon as I'm thrown off by either trying to dodge what could or couldn't be a real attack or trying to strike him on my own, he'll disappear yet again and strike while I'm vulnerable…_ The fake assaults continued as Kei was lost in thought, mentally drowning in the endless possibilities for escape… none of which seeming very hopeful. _I suppose I'll have to fake him out as well…_

Without any inclination of preparation to attack, Kei suddenly lashed out at one of the clones, which vanished immediately as he had expected. Instead of attempting to turn around to block the possible counter-attack, though, he threw his entire body into the original motion and form what was at first an attack into a forward dive, in which he was quick to drive a double-edged kick into the "emptiness" behind him. As he hit the ground with an acrobatic front flip and landed safely on the ground once again, he looked back to see that his plan had indeed worked… well.

Trent was placed a few yards behind Kei now, where his kick had unexpectedly met its mark as Trent appeared in the empty space at which the attack was aimed. He now stood, thrashing about with both hands covering no less than half his face that was dealt the destructive kick. Kei smiled inwardly at the damage he had caused, looking on at the sight of the "invincible" Cedric, writhing in agony with blood flowing freely between his fingers as they attempted to nurture his severely damaged facial features. "Some 'ultimate technique', Cedric… I quite like it." Kei commented tauntingly.

The demon suddenly found himself being turned around harshly by a hand with a stalwart grip on his collar. Again he was face to face with none other than Trent himself, characteristically presented without a scratch. Taking advantage of what he could only assume was Kei's shock, Trent wound up his free hand, clenched tightly into a fist. "So do I!" he yelled as he let his forceful punch fly, square in the center of the mask that was bound to Kei's face. He was flung harshly across a quarter of the arena from the sheer power behind the blow, the center of his mask actually sporting a fist-sized dent.

He then found himself jostled harshly to a stop, rousing himself to observe that he'd been caught by two of the copies, each fiercely gripping one of his arms. The Trent that had managed to land the punch on him dashed over with his haste-granted agility and crashed into the mask again, this time with his knee, at tremendous speed before again disappearing and again appearing in front of his target. "Hurts to be hit in the face like that, doesn't it?" he asked mockingly before delivering another power-packed fist, this time in uppercut form, to Kei's mask-covered face.

Kei weakly recovered from the blow and brought his head back down to face Trent, speaking in a voice that suggested not even a hint of pain: "so what I hit was another copy, then?"

"Actually," Trent began as he gently placed his hands on either side of Kei's head, still having the demon himself kept still by two copies. "That was me!" he yelled as his deft touch became an enraged grip, followed by a swift headbutt that knocked Kei out of the hands of his keepers and onto his back in the sand. "And I hope we're even now." Trent finished. He walked slowly back to his allies, who ran over to meet him halfway. Seeing that Trent had literally taken on a fully-fledged demon all alone, both immediately offered their aid to him, only to have it rejected. "I'm fine… just tired. Give me some space, though."

Both Aran and Rinn stepped back as Trent stood at attention and slowly brought his fist over his heart in the royal salute. "The duties of the Royal Guard have been upheld… seal release." His words were immediately followed by his collapse, again drawing the need to offer assistance from his friends. Again he waved them away. "You heard it yourself… I swore a Hero's Oath to rid Graphia of him… the power rush from initiating a Hero's Oath is intense, but after a while you can't even control yourself… it's almost frightening… so since he's gone, I can dispel it in peace… it's nothing serious."

The three heard someone clear their throat hoarsely, and Trent hoped to the gods that it was either Aran or Rinn. To his complete horror, however, Kei had merely stood back up after his beating. His clothing was tattered, his hair ruined, and his mask damaged horrifically, but he didn't seem to retain any structural damage whatsoever. His voice, as clear and concise as ever, was as unchanged as the small chains that helped the mask cling so tightly to his face. "Typically it's polite to wait for a response when you ask a question… but I'll let it slide this time. In any case, that last strike would technically make us 'even'… but oh, I'd be willing to be uneven again… I haven't had this much fun since the Yensa assault nine years ago."

At this, Aran's ears perked up. "The **what **assault?"

"Yensa… it's a magnificent city, actually. If they haven't changed too drastically while I've been gone, it should still be the Mithran capital city."

Aran's eyes grew wide in horror. "Was there a demon named Yazoo involved in this assault?"

Kei cocked his head quizzically to the side. "You know Yazoo, do you? Unexpected. It's because of his work that we were able to penetrate the city's defenses undetected… posing as a high-ranking official in the Mithran's military department let him gather all sorts of information. Unfortunately, however…" Kei continued as he took pleasure in witnessing Aran's expression become gradually more and more enraged, though he did not know why, "he had to wed one of the Mithrans to keep his cover… even **breed** with the wretched creature…"

This caused Aran to snap. He took a step towards Kei, looking as though he was trying to stare a hole into Kei. "And how do you know all of this!?" he yelled in fury, tears of both sorrow and rage dropping to the ground as he did so. "What part in the attack did you have? Were you Yazoo's partner? A friend!?" He waited out the silence briefly, sensing Kei's amusement beneath the mask. "Answer me!"

Kei stuffed his hands in the pockets of his coat and began to walk forward at a leisurely pace. "You may as well know, I guess. Aran, I planned the assault… the entirety. From the beginning of the attack fourteen years ago when Yazoo infiltrated the city to the actual assault five years following… it was all my doing. Don't you see the similarity between then and now? I specialize in creating scenarios in which the foe is isolated and submitted to slaughter… of course, it would take hours to explain just how much had to be done to do that to an entire city, but you get the general idea, yes?

"Just as Yazoo take over the body of your so-called 'father' and use his position in the government to gain extensive knowledge of my pray, I'd taken control of Astos and utilized **his** position in the school's faculty in order to gain extensive knowledge of you three. The only difference is that, for the three of you, I wanted to do the dirty work personally. And so here we are; three physically and mentally exhausted, teenaged heroes… against me." He brushed off his shoulders with in a distinctly elitist fashion, "and it looks like I'm still in perfect condition."

The three looked at one another hesitantly, taking in the situation. Trent appeared to be literally on the verge of fainting, and Rinn and Aran had both nearly reached their magical limits. _Is this it?_ Rinn could only wonder.

Kei continued to approach, neither speeding up nor slowing down. The only change in state presented was the drawing of yet another knife, this one sporting a horrific, jagged edge used more for tearing than slicing. The words "pain" and "death" subconsciously floated through the minds of Rinn, Trent, and Aran as they stared at what they could only see as a slowly approaching fate. The three, completely frozen in terror what could only be described as complete hopelessness, caused Kei to smile beneath his facial covering. _It's a pity that I can't seem to find a good moving target these days…_ was all he could think.

Rinn, on the other hand, was in much deeper thought. _It's been fourteen years… but it seems so short at this point. Spending so many years in the books, away from all of the other children… and finally coming here and meeting people whom I could really call my family. After those years of what I now know was a wasted life… lacking any real experience and only reading about it… I was blessed to have found them… all of them. It's only now that I realize just how much they mean to me... just how much they've done for me… just how far I've come from my old life, because of them… and how little I've done in return. I've insulted them… I've hurt them… I'm honestly horrified in how much the bad outweighs the good in this situation… and all because I didn't take to heart what life was without those people._

Rinn half-regained his consciousness and managed to fixate his gaze onto Kei, growing ever closer with his dagger hanging limply at his side. His eyes strayed back onto the mask, and he was again hypnotized by its beauty and horror. _And for them, who've never known what it's like to be alone as I was… I can at least do them the favor…_ he thought as he forced himself to take a step forward, not even considering the repercussions of what he was about to do, _of making sure they never have to!_

"Trent… Aran…" he said aloud to his teammates, who then looked at him solemnly. "Before anything else happens, I want you two to know… you're two of the best friends I've ever known. And I'm going to make sure that you both make it out of here to live along with the others. Please, don't let my sacrifice be in vain… don't interfere."

Upon hearing this, Trent and Aran both shook themselves to attention quickly. "Sacrifice!?" Aran asked in shock. "Rinn, please tell me that you aren't serious! We still have a chance! Nothing is going to be remedied if you try to fight that **thing** alone!"

Trent put a hand on Rinn's shoulder and pulled him back slightly. "Listen to Aran, Rinn. You're not going to solve anything if you just go on and kill yourself! What's gotten into you?"

"Look…" Rinn began, "if my math is correct, it's been about fifteen minutes exactly since he's issued his decree… that means that, assuming he's true to his word, he only has four minutes and forty-two seconds left here before he leaves as he has told us. If I throw life and limb into a distraction, I'm sure I can buy the time necessary… to keep everyone here alive. It's the least I can do for, well, everything… please, let me-"

Trent interrupted him by whirling him around to face him and, surprisingly to Rinn, delivering a smart slap across his face. He gripped Rinn by the collar of his robe and stared at his completely still and speechless form for a few moments before speaking. "If the rest of that sentence was 'do this', then you're sorely mistaken, Rinn. We came in here together, and we're leaving together. You don't have a choice. Had it ever even occurred to you that all three of us together have a much greater chance of distracting this guy until he leaves?"

"If you two are involved, you'll definitely get-"

**SMACK!**

"If the rest of **that** sentence was 'hurt', then you're **seriously** not understanding me! Did I not just say that you don't have a choice in this matter?"

Rinn roughly pushed Trent away from him and stood his ground against his friend. "I'm not going to let anyone else get hurt!"

"Well then…" Trent started, not sure how he was going to find a loophole through that argument. He cringed on the inside as he thought of how the silence he'd brought on was only cementing Rinn's decision, wishing there was something that he could say… something that he could honestly tell Rinn that would pull him away from his choice, though all that he could think of was wishes and lies.

Aran stepped forward held his staff at the ready, facing Kei with full intention of resistance. Before Rinn could try to stop him, he finished Trent's sentence for him. "We just won't get hurt, then."

Both Rinn and Trent, a few feet behind Aran, could only look on their friend in awe. Such confidence and bravery wasn't seen or heard of too often, though the awe-inspiring part of it was just how much they believed in his words. They too stepped up to the challenge, one on either side of Aran, and readied themselves. "How are we going to do this," Rinn began, knowing that what he was saying was the epitome of pessimism at this point, but also knowing, strangely enough, that he had full confidence in himself and his allies, "if he has been Astos this whole time? He knows everything that we've learned while we've been at the academy… we have no way of attaining the element of surprise."

"We'll just have to pull a little improvisation into play… it's not too farfetched." Aran stated assuredly.

"But it sure isn't smart." Trent commented.

Kei stopped a few yards away from the three, now twirling the blade around by its hilt in his hand. "So you're not coming quietly anymore, is that what I am to understand?"

"Looks like it."

"Hmph, and just when I figured that I would have some time left over to harvest a few souls from the audience… pity. Unfortunately, I'm on a strict timetable… this is going to be quick."

"Four minutes quick?"

"Don't be smart!" he yelled, tossing an immediately deflected blade to Trent. The fighter charged at Kei in retaliation to the attack, only to end up slashing through thin air. He whirled around to find his opponent not directly behind him, but far behind even Rinn and Aran. His hand was held out in front of him, fore and middle fingers pointed towards the three. "To hell with you all!" he again yowled, the earth around his feet shattering dramatically with fitting explosions of fire and brimstone. Through the gaps left behind by the miniature earthquake came chains of similar look to the ones around Kei's face, the only difference being in size. They picked themselves up by their own means and lashed out at the Rinn, Trent, and Aran.

Trent bent backwards to the point that the top half of his body and his leg made a ninety degree angle to avoid the first chain flung towards him, catching himself on both hands and pushing himself back up with them immediately afterward. He dodged skillfully to the right, then to the left with an added duck. Another came at him directly towards his face, with yet another within sight behind it, at chest level. Trent flattened himself completely onto the ground to avoid the two, having to push his entire body up on one hand moments later to put himself above yet another attacker. _Crap!_ He thought to himself as he realized he'd put himself in the perfect position to have his face ripped off by one of the chains; he put his arm to rest again and collapsed on the ground, immediately barrel-rolling out of the way of yet another foe. He stood up as quickly as possible, finding it now difficult to see what was coming towards him and what had already passed, finally realizing to dodge to the side just a bit too late and having the front of his armor carved into by a passing hunk of the spiked metal. Finally they had stopped.

Trent looked to the left and right of himself, seeing that Rinn and Aran had similar luck with dodging the chains; all three combatants frozen in twisted positions as to not let even a single part of their bodies touch the chains, which were now hanging stiffly in mid-air. "Not too bad…" Kei spoke as the chains all fell to the ground at once, quickly receding back into the earth where they had been summoned from. "But try this!"

Kei threw three of his best knives into the air, these ones not made for cutting or ripping, but stabbing. "One for each of you!" he cackled as they all disappeared into thin air at their peak altitude, immediately followed by Kei in a similar fashion. With not even three knives to see, much less the demon himself, Rinn, Trent, and Aran could only use their hearing to identify his position.

They all drew their weapons and stood at the ready, back-to-back-to-back. For a long time nothing happened… they just stood there in the dry silence, listening not even to the wind, which couldn't permeate Kei's shell anyway. His voice began to sound all around them, well-heard though weak. "I said one for each, not one for all… you three need to learn to follow the rules."

They continued to keep their stance, trying to keep a defensive position and stalling for time. It wasn't long before the voice came back: "Well if you won't listen to me, then I'll just have to separate you…" he said, this time identifiably from above; all three heroes looked upwards to find Kei nearly one hundred feet above them and falling… fast. "Scatter!" Trent yelled, causing the three to abandon their defense as Kei came crashing down into what would have been the direct center of them with his fist, now buried into the ground. Without a hint of effort, he plucked it from its earthy grasp and turned to face Aran. "I think I'll choose you…" he said menacingly, taking a step towards him. A step, however, was all that he could manage before the hand that he had recently freed from the earth was vengefully pulled back under by an unknown force. Kei looked about wildly, finding an answer to his internally asked question in Rinn, whom had once again donned his stone gauntlet. "Well that's no fun." He growled.

Rinn tore Monolith up from the ground and released Kei at a reasonably high altitude, only to grab him again by the leg and drag him with great force into the ground again. Just as Rinn punched the solid ground with all of his might, causing him a pain which was no doubt a broken finger or two, Monolith send Kei crashing into it in a more-or-less suicidal maneuver for himself, shattering upon contact with the earth. "That…" Rinn rasped out between grunts of exhaustion and pain, "must've hurt." Suddenly, though, it wasn't the pain in his hand that he was worried about.

Without any form of warning, his entire body burst into intense, racking pain, stemming at his chest. The knife became visible once again, buried at least three inches deep into the right of Rinn's sternum. Cries of agony similar to his own were heard, and Rinn looked out with blurred vision to see the writhing forms of Aran and Trent in the distance, both struck with the same underhanded trick. Most horribly, though, was the tall, red-garbed man who slowly stood up in the center of all three, unscathed. Rinn, through the primal instinct to blot out all other thoughts but those of survival, harvested an intense hatred of the man from the depths of his soul. The man slowly became larger and larger in perspective to Rinn, whose vision had almost gone completely due to the shock of the dagger. With Kei nearly upon him, fear overtook Rinn completely as he hoped desperately that his body would just shut down. That the stress on his mind and body could finally end… the mind games, the horrible pain, the doubt, the fear, the broken bones, the broken dreams, the failure, and the regret… that they would all finally come to a close and let him rest.

Kei picked Rinn up by his collar, lifting his limp form clean off of the ground. He brought the mage a mere two inches from his own face, allowing him to view that wretched, spine-chilling mask in all of its macabre glory. And then he spoke in a whisper: "Master Alucard is pleased… well done."

And just as his last word had said, it was done. He vanished into thin air, as though he'd never been there at all, dropping Rinn roughly to the ground, not that it mattered in his particular case at the moment. Rinn had only the mental capacity to observe matters around him through touch and hearing… unfortunately. All that he could take in for a good few minutes was the terrible, mind-numbing pain that shook his body relentlessly in wave after wave and the horrible screams of his allies, both of whom he… could have saved from their fates. _Why did I let them… why did they even…_

…

_If I let them get hurt… I said that I wouldn't… then… why… should I even… be… here…_ Rinn thought finally, giving in to the dark embrace of unconsciousness just as Gana and Verikk came running to him with the medical team.

"Rinn!" Was the last thing that he heard before every aspect of his being shut down at long last.

"Don't give in now, damnit! Rinn!"

"…"

"**Rinn!!"**

.'.'.'


	54. Public Service Announcement

**This is a public service announcement for those of you who have "Hero Academy" under your story alert list, and not the author under your author alert list: the second volume of our beloved Hero Academy is being updated in an entirely different story, entitled "The 12****th**** Miasma". So be on the lookout for it, and thanks for reading!**


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